Alarm Management in Provisional COVID-19 Intensive Care Units: Retrospective Analysis and Recommendations for Future Pandemics.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In response to the high patient admission rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, provisional intensive care units (ICUs) were set up, equipped with temporary monitoring and alarm systems. We sought to find out whether the provisional ICU setting led to a higher alarm burden and more staff with alarm fatigue.

Objective

We aimed to compare alarm situations between provisional COVID-19 ICUs and non-COVID-19 ICUs during the second COVID-19 wave in Berlin, Germany. The study focused on measuring alarms per bed per day, identifying medical devices with higher alarm frequencies in COVID-19 settings, evaluating the median duration of alarms in both types of ICUs, and assessing the level of alarm fatigue experienced by health care staff.

Methods

Our approach involved a

SUBMITTER: Wunderlich MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11420579 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature