Alarm Fatigue
Abstract
Research has demonstrated that 72% to 99% of clinical alarms are false. The high number of false alarms has led to alarm fatigue. Alarm fatigue is sensory overload when clinicians are exposed to an excessive number of alarms, which can result in desensitization to alarms and missed alarms. Patient deaths have been attributed to alarm fatigue. Patient safety and regulatory agencies have focused on the issue of alarm fatigue, and it is a 2014 Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goal. Quality improvement projects have demonstrated that strategies such as daily electrocardiogram electrode changes, proper skin preparation, education, and customization of alarm parameters have been able to decrease the number of false alarms. These and other strategies need to be tested in rigorous clinical trials to determine whether they reduce alarm burden without compromising patient safety.
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Clinicians describe alert fatigue (i.e., desensitization to alerts, leading them to be ignored) due to a high volume of interruptive alerts.
“Clinicians describe alert fatigue (i.e., desensitization to alerts, leading them to be ignored 29 ) due to a high volume of interruptive alerts.”
From Qualitative Study of Inpatient Hospital Medicine Interruptive Alerts and Clinical Decision Support (2026) · cites this paper as [29]
Cites
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Self-citationChambrin, M.-C., Ravaux, P., Calvelo-Aros, D., Jaborska, A., Chopin, C., & Boniface, B. (1999) · Intensive Care Medicine · doi:10.1007/s001340051082 · Cited by 227 · see citing works
Atzema, C., Schull, M. J., Borgundvaag, B., Slaughter, G. R. D., & Lee, C. K. (2006) · The American Journal of Emergency Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.ajem.2005.05.015 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Effect of dedicated monitor watchers on patients' outcomes
Funk, M., Parkosewich, J., Johnson, C., & Stukshis, I. (1997) · American Journal of Critical Care · doi:10.4037/ajcc1997.6.4.318 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Self-citationStukshis, I., Funk, M., Johnson, C., & Parkosewich, J. (1997) · American Journal of Critical Care · doi:10.4037/ajcc1997.6.4.312 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
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Steinberg, J. S., Varma, N., Cygankiewicz, I., Aziz, P., Balsam, P., Baranchuk, A., Cantillon, D. J., Dilaveris, P., Dubner, S. J., El-Sherif, N., et al. (2017) · Heart Rhythm · doi:10.1016/j.hrthm.2017.03.038 · Cited by 303 · see citing works
Barton, C., Chettipally, U., Zhou, Y., Jiang, Z., Lynn-Palevsky, A., Le, S., Calvert, J., & Das, R. (2019) · Computers in Biology and Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.compbiomed.2019.04.027 · Cited by 175 · see citing works
Steenwinckel, B., De Paepe, D., Vanden Hautte, S., Heyvaert, P., Bentefrit, M., Moens, P., Dimou, A., Van Den Bossche, B., De Turck, F., Van Hoecke, S., et al. (2021) · Future Generation Computer Systems · doi:10.1016/j.future.2020.10.015 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
Chappel, E. (2023) · Global Journal of Engineering and Technology Advances · doi:10.30574/gjeta.2023.16.3.0181 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Qualitative Study of Inpatient Hospital Medicine Interruptive Alerts and Clinical Decision Support
Khan, A., & Schnipper, J. (2026) · Applied Clinical Informatics · doi:10.1055/a-2955-9555
- Authors
- Sendelbach, S., & Funk, M.
- Affiliations
- Abbott Northwestern Hospital (US)
- ORCID
- Funk, Marjorie
- Venue
- AACN Advanced Critical Care
- Publisher
- AACN Publishing
- Published
- 2013-10-01
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 378-386
- ISSN
- 1559-7768 (ISSN-L)
- 1559-7776
- OpenAlex
- W2004512400
- Cited by
- 497
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 87 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 51 · 2023: 59 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 42 · 2020: 39 · 2019: 43 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 8
- FWCI
- 13.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- AACN Advanced Critical Care (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Healthcare Technology and Patient Monitoring
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Patient Safety and Medication Errors
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Family Practice › Clinical Reasoning and Diagnostic Skills
- Keywords
- alarm fatigue, sensory overload, alarm desensitization, missed alarms, patient safety, skin preparation, quality improvement, critical care nursing
- MeSH terms
- Education, Nursing, Continuing, Humans, Monitoring, Physiologic, Baltimore, Patient Safety
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