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Cardiac Telemetry Downtime and Contingency Plan Development: A Review of Downtime Events Reported in the Veterans
Wendy Morrish1, Christina Soncrant, Colleen Walsh-Irwin
1National Center for Patient Safety, Veterans Health Administration, Ann Arbor, Michigan (Ms Morrish, Mr Kulju, and Dr Gunnar); National Center for Patient Safety Field Office, Veterans Health Administration, White River Junction, Vermont (Ms Soncrant); Office of Nursing Services, Veterans Health Administration, Washington, District of Columbia (Dr Walsh-Irwin); and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Dr Gunnar).
Background:
Cardiac telemetry downtime may be planned or unplanned, causing a disruption in telemetry services with a potential to impact patient safety.
Problem:
Many cardiac telemetry units in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) have contingency plans that do not adequately address telemetry downtime.
Approach:
This is a retrospective quality improvement analysis of VHA-reported cardiac telemetry downtime events from October 1, 2014, to Mar 31, 2020.
Outcomes:
Of 98 events, no patient harm was reported; 13% (n = 13) were planned downtime, 82% (n = 80) were unplanned downtime, 18% (n = 18) reported contingency plan use, 78% (n = 76) did not specify contingency plan use, and 32% (n = 31) reported events lasting 31 minutes to 6 hours in duration.
Conclusions:
The majority of reported cardiac telemetry downtime events were unplanned and without documented contingency plans. A robust contingency plan with defined staff roles and responsibilities will serve to lessen anxiety during downtimes and mitigate potential risk of patient harm.
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