Plan to Evaluate Alarm Fatigue

¶ … Alarm Fatigue

Evaluation Plan: Alarm Fatigue

In order to determine the effectiveness of the plan to combat alarm fatigue, which involves changing the sounds that the alarms use in order to make them more audible and less likely to be "tuned out" by medical personnel, specific criteria are needed. These criteria will be used in order to decide whether the plan is effective, or whether it is necessary to consider and address other changes that will be used in place of the new plan or in addition to it. As nurses and other medical personnel work through the new plan and get used to the new alarms, there may be changes that have to be made. The goal of the objective criteria and examination of them is to determine whether these changes are needed and if they are changes that can be implemented. These objective criteria are:

Nurses and other medical personnel respond to alarms more frequently than they did in the past.

Nurses and other medical personnel respond to alarms faster than they did under the older alarm system.

Patients are receiving the care that they need in a more timely and appropriate manner than they were in the past.

Nurses and other medical personnel find that the alarms are easier to hear and/or easier to distinguish from other noises around them.

The different noises the alarms provide make it easier to determine whether there is a true emergency or simply a notification.

The number of patients who have reported sub-standard care or slow response times has dropped.

Nurses are more comfortable with the alarm system because it provides them with better cues for proper patient care.

The number of patient injuries has gone down under the new alarm system when compared with the past.

Medical personnel work together more easily now that they have "friendlier" alarms to which they can respond.

The new alarm system has saved or protected patient lives because it is better suited to faster and more thorough patient response and care.

The criteria listed above will be judged in the following manner, on a scale of 1 through 5 in order to determine whether the criteria were or were not properly met:

1 = not at all met

2 = only partially met

3 = neutral or not applicable

4 = mostly but not completely met

5 = completely met

The evaluation plan will be implemented through individual surveys. This is done in order to allow the surveys to be completely anonymous, and to help those who fill them out feel comfortable enough to be completely honest about whether they feel the criteria are being met properly and completely, or whether there are changes that need to be made because criteria are not being met. In order to address the issue quickly and move forward, the evaluation will be conducted once the new plan has been in place for three months. That should be enough time to determine whether it is working as expected, or whether there are significant changes that can and should be made. If there are problems with the plan and objectives are not being met, the three-month time frame also allows for changes to be made before the plan has been in place for too long and becomes very difficult to change.

The information collected from the evaluations will be compiled, and the overall results provided in a memo to personnel. That information will also be posted in staff areas, so all personnel can see the final results. There will not be any specific personnel called out by name, nor will there be detailed information that provides any kind of link to which employees find the new system valuable and which do not. The issue is not about whether employees like or do not like something, but about the overall effectiveness of the new plan in meeting the objectives that have been set out for it. The compilation of the information will be based on considering the responses to each question, and adding up the number of each response to the question. That will provide a clear picture of whether most people who were surveyed feel the objectives are being met, or whether they feel the new alarm system and plan is falling short and not allowing objectives to be properly met.