Ventilator Alarms in Intensive Care Units: Frequency, Duration, Priority, and Relationship to Ventilator Parameters

Maria M. Cvach, Jacqueline E. Stokes, Sajid H. Manzoor, Patrick O. Brooks, Timothy S. Burger, Allan Gottschalk, Aliaksei Pustavoitau

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ventilator alarms have long been presumed to contribute substantially to the overall alarm burden in the intensive care unit. In a prospective observational study, we determined that each ventilator triggered an alarm cascade of up to 8 separate notifications once every 6 minutes. In 1 intensive care unit with different ventilator manufacturers, the distribution of high-priority alarms was manufacturer dependent with 8.6% of alarms from 1 type and 89.8% of alarms from another type of ventilator. Alarm limits were not a function of patient-specific ventilator settings.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)E9-E13
JournalAnesthesia and analgesia
Volume130
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2020
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine

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