Measuring What Matters: Alarm Reduction Insights from a Real-World Implementation

Alarm fatigue is widely recognized, but meaningful improvement requires careful measurement and thoughtful interpretation of alarm data, not simply adjusting thresholds. This session presents a real-world case study from a Cardiac ICU at Maine Health, where bedside monitor alarm data were systematically collected and analyzed to better understand alarm burden and inform targeted alarm management changes.

This presentation will highlight how objective metrics were selected, how data trends were interpreted to identify high-frequency, low-actionability alarms, and how results were evaluated following implementation. Lessons learned during implementation, including collaboration with clinical stakeholders and considerations for sustaining improvements, will also be discussed. Attendees will gain practical, data-informed insights into measuring and addressing alarm burden in ways that support safer, more effective monitoring practices.