Alarm Hazards Top Patient Tech Threat
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
The ECRI Institute released its annual list of the top ten medical technology hazards to patient safety and at the top of the list is alarm hazards.
Alarm hazards top the 2015 list of medical technology hazards to patient safety, a list recently released by the ECRI Institute. According to iHealth Beat, staff at the institute reviewed problem reports from health facilities worldwide to compile this list of hazards.
“Technology safety can often be overlooked,” said James P. Keller, Jr., VP, health technology evaluation and safety, ECRI Institute in a press release. “Based on our experience, there are serious safety problems that need to be addressed. ECRI Institute recommends that hospitals use our list as a guide to help prioritize their technology-related safety initiatives.”
The top ten hazards identified in the report are:
- alarm hazards: inadequate alarm configuration policies and practices
- data integrity: incorrect or missing data in electronic health records and other health IT systems
- mix-up of IV lines leading to misadministration of drugs and solutions
- inadequate reprocessing of endoscopes and surgical instruments
- ventilator disconnections not caught because of mis-set or missed alarms
- patient-handling device use errors and device failures
- "dose creep": unnoticed variations in diagnostic radiation exposures
- robotic surgery: complications due to insufficient training
- cybersecurity: insufficient protections for medical devices and systems
- overwhelmed recall and safety alert management programs
According to MedCity News, alarms become a hazard when their configuration is left at factory settings and are not customized to the needs of the hospitals in which they are installed. The report recommends putting someone in charge of setting the correct alarms that meet the needs of your individual facility.
When it comes to missing or incorrect EHR data, often the mistake is a simple typo or error. According to the report the most common errors include outdated information that has been copied and pasted, inconsistencies between paper and electronic records, and even clock synchronization errors.