Too much noise from hospital alarms poses risk for patients

The Washington Post  By Lena H. Sun, Published: July 7  –  Walk into a hospital intensive-care unit and hear the din: A ventilator honks loudly. An infusion pump emits a high-pitched beep-beep every six seconds. A blood pressure monitor pushes out one long tone after another.

This particular racket, at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, comes from medical devices and equipment that scans for potentially dangerous ­changes in patients’ heart rhythm, blood pressure and other vital signs.

But most of the noises are false alarms or don’t require action. The ventilator sounds a warning because a patient coughs. The infusion pump beeps after running out of a medication the patient no longer needs. The blood pressure monitor goes off after a nurse adjusts a catheter in the patient’s artery.  Read more