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Alarm Response in Critical Care: Obstacles for Compliance

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Health and Social Care Systems of the Future: Demographic Changes, Digital Age and Human Factors (HEPS 2019)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 1012))

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Abstract

Clinicians who are exposed to noisy environments are more likely to suffer from alarm fatigue, stress or sleep deprivation, and can finally become inefficient in the moment to respond to a critical situation. In other words, a lack of compliance or an inappropriate response to alarms is constantly observed in clinicians operating in critical care. In this paper, we introduce the issue of lack of compliance with medical alarms in critical care by contrasting the mandatory approaches stemming from safety and efficiency purposes (i.e., study of (cognitive) ergonomics) with a motivational approach (i.e., a user-centred study focusing on contextual inquiry). Based on in-situ observations carried out in intensive care units and the relevant literature review we define the obstacles for compliance deriving from psychological and contextual constraints and provide relevant insights to help designers and clinicians to fight with. Our aim is to initiate discussions regarding the main purpose of medical alarms and how to integrate them better in clinician workflow.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Architecture, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    Rosana Sanz-Segura

  2. Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands

    Elif Özcan

  3. Department of Intensive Care, Erasmus Medical Centre Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands

    Elif Özcan

Authors
  1. Rosana Sanz-Segura
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  2. Elif Özcan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rosana Sanz-Segura .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Laboratório de Ergonomia, CIAUD, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Teresa Patrone Cotrim

  2. Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Centro de Investigação em Saúde Pública, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Florentino Serranheira

  3. Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Centro de Investigação em Saúde Pública, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Paulo Sousa

  4. Loughborough Design School, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    Sue Hignett

  5. Centre for Patient Safety, Tuscany, Italy

    Sara Albolino

  6. Careggi University Hospital, Clinical Risk Management and Patient Safety Center, Tuscany, Italy

    Riccardo Tartaglia

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Sanz-Segura, R., Özcan, E. (2019). Alarm Response in Critical Care: Obstacles for Compliance. In: Cotrim, T., Serranheira, F., Sousa, P., Hignett, S., Albolino, S., Tartaglia, R. (eds) Health and Social Care Systems of the Future: Demographic Changes, Digital Age and Human Factors. HEPS 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1012. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24067-7_9

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