De-escalation of alarm priorities in medical devices

• US 5,920,263 A
• Filed: 06/11/1998
• Issued: 07/06/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Datex-Ohmeda Incorporated (General Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Ohmeda, Inc. (Linde Plc)
• Inventors: Williams, Trent L., Huttenhoff, John P., Lukey, Graham B., Goodrich, Christopher R.
• Primary Examiner(s): SWANN III, GLEN R
• Application Number:
  US09/096,238
• Time in Patent Office: 390 Days
• Field of Search: 340/679, 340/691, 340/573
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02455 provided with high/low alarm devices
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0453 worn on the body to detect health condition by physiological monitoring, e.g. electrocardiogram, temperature, breathing detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 3/10 using electric transmission; using electromagnetic transmission
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 5/36 using visible light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 7/06 using electric transmission , e.g. involving audible and visible signalling through the use of sound and light sources

Abstract

An alarm prioritizing system for use with a medical device categorizes the alarms into high, medium and low priority alarms. With the medium and high priority alarms, there is a visual indication and a audible sound that cannot be fully muted. With certain alarms, however, the operator can, by a positive and deliberate input, de-escalate the alarm priority from a medium priority alarm to a low priority alarm where the audible sound is muted and only a visual indication is thereafter provided. There is a time delay between the time the user actually starts the de-escalation process before it is effected to enable the user to properly identify the alarm and its location on a visual display panel. As a further feature, the same visual indication shifts from a medium priority alarm location to a low priority alarm location.

Claims

1. An alarm system for recognizing and alerting a user to a fault condition in a medical device, said alarm system comprising a means to activate an alarm responsive to detection of the fault condition, said alarm system having an audible annunciation and a display panel for displaying a visual indication of said alarm, said alarm having a first state wherein said audible annunciation is activated and said visual indication is activated to display said alarm at a first location on said display panel, said alarm further having a second state wherein said visual alarm is activated to display said alarm at a second location on said display panel and said audible alarm is silenced and means operable by user action to de-escalate said alarm from said first state to said second state, whereby said visual alarm indication is displayed on said display panel at said second location and said audible annunication is muted.

2. An alarm system for a medical device as defined in claim 1 wherein said alarm system includes an input device operable by the user action and a timer to provide a predetermined time delay between the operation of said input device and the de-escalation of said alarm from said first state to said second state.

3. An alarm system for a medical device as defined in claim 2 wherein said time delay is between 5 seconds and 30 seconds.

4. An alarm system for a medical device as defined in claim 2 wherein said medical device is from the group comprising anesthesia delivery devices, breathing gas delivery devices, and patient monitors.

5. A system for the de-escalating of an alarm priority in a medical device, said system comprising:

sensing means to monitor the operation of said medical device and to determine the existence of a predetermined fault condition and to produce a signal when said fault condition occurs,

a display panel for receiving said signal from said sensing means to indicate a visual notice of the fault condition,

an audible device receiving the signal from said sensing means to provide an audible annunciation when said fault condition is determined,

means to categorize a plurality of said fault conditions as a first category based upon the consequences of said fault condition wherein said visual indication is provided on said display panel and said audible annunciation is provided, wherein at least one of said first category fault conditions is a predetermined fault condition representative of a lesser consequence fault condition,

input means operable by a user to de-escalate only said at least one predetermined fault condition of said plurality of fault conditions from said first category to a second, lower fault category of lesser consequences wherein said visual indication is provided on said display panel and said audible annunciation is muted.

6. A system for the de-escalating of an alarm priority in a medical device as defined in claim 5 wherein said input means further includes a timer that provides a predetermined time period interposed between the operation of the input means by the user and the de-escalating of said category.

7. A system for the de-escalating of an alarm priority in a medical device as defined in claim 5 wherein said medical device is from the group comprising of anesthesia delivery devices, breathing gas delivery devices and patient monitors.

8. In an alarm system for a medical device with prioritized alarms, a method of controlling the priority of alarms activated upon various fault conditions, said method comprising:

categorizing alarms of the medical device into at least two categories of fault conditions depending upon the higher or lower consequences of the fault condition,

providing an audible alarm and a visual alarm upon the detection of a fault condition of the higher consequences,

providing a visual alarm with non-repeating or no audio component upon the detection of a fault condition of the lower consequences, and

providing an input means to enable the user to deliberately de-escalate the fault category from the higher category to the lower category.

9. A method for the de-escalating of an alarm priority in a medical device as defined in claim 8 wherein said medical device is from the group comprising of anesthesia delivery devices, breathing gas delivery devices and patient monitors.

10. An alarm system for recognizing and alerting a user to a fault condition in a medical device, said alarm system having alarms activated by fault conditions, said alarms being prioritized into higher and lower priorities depending upon the severity of the consequences of the particular alarm condition activating the alarm, said alarms having different means for communicating the alarm to a user depending on the higher or lower priority, and an input means to enable a user to de-escalate at least one but not all of said alarms to reduce said priority from the higher priority alarm to the lower priority alarm.