مقايسه اخطارهاي گفتاري و زنگي در بخش مراقبت ويژه

Comparing vocal and beep alarms in intensive care unit

Aims: Ventilators designed to generate the alarms when patient have any problem. However, these alarms can blend in with other accustomed sounds of the intensive care unit. This study was to improve medical ventilator alarms in ICU by comparing vocal and beep alarms regarding to nurses and physicians opinion. Methods: Studied "vocal alarm" designed in Persian language and put on "Bennet 7200" ventilator used in central ICU. In critical conditions, beep alarm system produced a beep and there was a message near the red switched on lamp. Vocal alarm system used a software microprocessor, broadcasted recognized alarms in speech respectively. 40 questionnaires from nurses, physicians and assistants about two systemsʹ differences collected and data analyzed with SPSS 11 software. Results: 22 (54.5%) of attendants were "oppose" or "completely oppose" to this belief that death is more occuring with vocal alarmed ventilator. Response duration for normal beep alarmed ventilators assessed longer than vocal alarms. Conclusion: In ICU personnel opinion. The vocal alarms improve patient safety by alerting all critical ventilator events. Using vocal alarm system reduces the response duration to alarms of the ventilator events.