AST Guideline - Best Practices in Alarm Management in the Operating Room

8 Glossary Actionable level : The alarm of a medical device is activated when a clinical intervention is required. Alarm fatigue : Occurs when healthcare worker is exposed to a large number of frequent alarms and becomes desensitized to hearing them leading to longer response times or clinically important alarms. Artifacts : Patient movement, movement of sensors or other clinically unnecessary event that causes a false alarm. Electrosurgical alarm/buzzing : The sound the electrosurgical unit (ESU) emits when the active electrode is activated; due to the unique sound it is referred to as “buzzing”. False or nuisance alarms : An alarm that occurs for a clinically unnecessary event, such as a patient moving. Medical device alarms : Tones or sound a medical device that is connected to a patient emits when a clinical or physiological event causes the alarm to be activated. Smart alarms : Alarms on medical devices that can monitor multiple parameters and the alarms are based on the patient’s physiologic trends over a period of time. References 1. American College of Surgeons. Medical device alarms pose safety issues for hospitals. 2013. http://bulletin.facs.org/2013/07/medical-device-alarms-pose-safety- issues-for-hospitals/. Accessed September 22, 2016. 2. Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. Clinical alarm management compendium. 2015. http://s3.amazonaws.com/rdcms- aami/files/production/public/FileDownloads/HTSI/Alarms/Alarm_Compendium_201 5.pdf. Accessed September 22, 2016. 3. Association of Surgical Technologists. AST standards of practice for creating the sterile field. 2009. http://www.ast.org/uploadedFiles/Main_Site/Content/About_Us/Standard_Creating_S terile_Field.pdf. Accessed September 24, 2016. 4. Association of Surgical Technologists. AST standards of practice for electrosurgery. 2012. http://www.ast.org/uploadedFiles/Main_Site/Content/About_Us/Standard%20Electro surgery.pdf. Accessed September 21, 2016. 5. Association of Surgical Technologists. AST continuing education policies for the CST and CSFA. 2005 . http://www.ast.org/webdocuments/CEpolicies/. Accessed July 28, 2016.