Health System Redesign of Cardiac Monitoring Oversight to Optimize Alarm Management, Safety, and Staff Engagement

The purpose of this quality improvement project was to improve health system patient safety by creating a cardiac monitoring structure aligned with national standards.

Excessive alarms pose patient safety threats and are often false or clinically insignificant. The Joint Commission identified reduction of nonactionable alarms as a National Patient Safety Goal.

The conversion to structured monitoring occurred in 4 phases: 1) defining health system monitoring structure and processes; 2) co-create sessions; 3) implementation and impact analysis; and 4) ongoing evaluation and optimization.

Twenty-two clinical units participated. At the conclusion of phase 4, total 30-day alarm rates decreased by 74% at the academic hospital and by 92% and 95% at the community hospitals and were sustained for 12 months.

Decreasing alarm frequency can be safely achieved in academic and community hospitals by creating a system-wide monitoring infrastructure and standardized processes that engage interdisciplinary teams.