Health devices
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There are many reasons that the numbers of physiologic monitoring system alarms that clinicians must respond to can grow out of control. This article identifies the most common reasons and delivers recommendations for handling them. Although alarms are an important part of patient care and safety, they can easily reach quantities that overwhelm nurses, thereby compromising alarm effectiveness. ⋯ Rather, the way to combat alarm overload is to first identify the various sources of excessive alarms and to then take actions to individually address each source. This article recommends key actions to take and describes how these actions can be organized into a systematic plan. The effect of these efforts should be better clinical efficiency and improved patient safety.