[Thoughts on alarm processing in intensive care medicine and anesthesia monitoring]

The experiences in alarm processing gained during computerised arrhythmia detection are transferred to the field of intensive care and anaesthesia, and are developed further. Here, the number of considered alarms has to be held as low as possible because there are many more different parameters and devices that can cause an alarm. Within the considered alarm, the number of false alarms must also be minimized. We tried to develop a methodology of alarm processing. Great effort has been spent on a uniform and effective notification, resetting, and documentation of alarms. As a means for alarm notification, acoustical devices with different sounds, lamps with different colours, alphanumeric and graphical screen displays are discussed. The manner of resetting (true/false) determines the subsequent alarm path. Besides special alarm history reports, documentation must connect alarm events with the normal patient records.