ArticlePloS one2017
Understanding heart rate alarm adjustment in the intensive care units through an analytical approach.
Article in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Performance and safety of a novel, cable-free, patch-based, and AI-enhanced ECG monitoring system: a comparative study.European heart journal. Digital health · 2025Article
- The influence of patient characteristics on the alarm rate in intensive care units: a retrospective cohort study.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- An Overview of the Sensors for Heart Rate Monitoring Used in Extramural Applications.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Towards development of alert thresholds for clinical deterioration using continuous predictive analytics monitoring.Journal of clinical monitoring and computing · 2020Article
- Article
- Technical article: Overview of hospital-based data capture systems that acquire continuous ECG and physiologic data.Journal of electrocardiologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundHeart rate (HR) alarms are prevalent in ICU, and these parameters are configurable. Not much is known about nursing behavior associated with tailoring HR alarm parameters to individual patients to reduce clinical alarm fatigue.
objectivesTo understand the relationship between heart rate (HR) alarms and adjustments to reduce unnecessary heart rate alarms.
methodsRetrospective, quantitative analysis of an adjudicated database using analytical approaches to understand behaviors surrounding parameter HR alarm adjustments. Patients were sampled from five adult ICUs (77 beds) over one month at a quaternary care university medical center. A total of 337 of 461 ICU patients had HR alarms with 53.7% male, mean age 60.3 years, and 39% non-Caucasian. Default HR alarm parameters were 50 and 130 beats per minute (bpm). The occurrence of each alarm, vital signs, and physiologic waveforms was stored in a relational database (SQL server).
resultsThere were 23,624 HR alarms for analysis, with 65.4% exceeding the upper heart rate limit. Only 51% of patients with HR alarms had parameters adjusted, with a median upper limit change of +5 bpm and -1 bpm lower limit. The median time to first HR parameter adjustment was 17.9 hours, without reduction in alarms occurrence (p = 0.57).
conclusionsHR alarms are prevalent in ICU, and half of HR alarm settings remain at default. There is a long delay between HR alarms and parameters changes, with insufficient changes to decrease HR alarms. Increasing frequency of HR alarms shortens the time to first adjustment. Best practice guidelines for HR alarm limits are needed to reduce alarm fatigue and improve monitoring precision.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.