Service Launched to Help Hospitals Meet Alarm Safety Goals

The ECRI Institute, Plymouth Meeting, Pa., has announced what it terms a comprehensive service to objectively re-examine and modify their current alarm management processes. The service works with hospitals to produce customized, realistic, and implementable solutions to enhance alarm management, reduce alarm fatigue, and ultimately improve patient safety. ECRI Institute says that its alarm safety service is focused on the hospital's culture, infrastructure, technology, and practices and policies.

The launch of the service is timed to coincide with requirements of The Joint Commission’s 2014 National Patient Safety Goal. In Phase I of that initiative, (beginning January 2014), hospitals will be required to establish alarms as an organization priority and identify the most important alarms to manage based on their own internal situations. In Phase II (beginning January 2016), hospitals will be expected to develop and implement specific components of policies and procedures. Education of those in the organization about alarm system management will also be required in January 2016.