(These are excerpts of the poster presentation made at the recent annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. It is reprinted with permission.)
Introduction
Preventable deaths in hospitals remain a major public health hazard worldwide. Analysis of registries for cardiopulmonary arrests (CPA) identified missed vital signs and symptoms of decompensation and spurred the development of RRT and MET teams. Although widely adopted, their impact on overall hospital morbidity and mortality remains unclear.
‘Alarm fatigue’, where poor ergonomics, integration and response to alarms on medical devices desensitizes providers to alarms was identified by the ECRI as the top health technology hazard for 2012, causing 500+ preventable deaths . The FDA, JC, AAMI, and ACCE have joined forces to remedy this patient safety hazard. Continue reading “Respiratory Depression: The Common Fatal Pathway for “Non Fatal” Conditions”