Alarm Management 2016
Which Vendors Are Best Positioned to Help Reduce Notification Fatigue?

1. CONNEXALL'S INNOVATION AND GUIDANCE SET THEM APART

Connexall pairs innovative routing capabilities with a customer-centric approach focused on building partnerships. They offer strong guidance for customers and proactively reach out to non-middleware vendors to help reduce alarm fatigue. Bernoulli, Cerner, and Extension Healthcare customers are satisfied with responsive support and alarm customizations. While these three vendors are similar in overall performance, Extension customers are most likely to feel their vendor is best at helping them battle alarm fatigue. Spok meets providers' expectations, though customers say improvements could be made to the analytics and underwhelming support.

2. SUPPORT FROM EXTENSION HEALTHCARE, CONNEXALL HELPS REDUCE NOTIFICATION FATIGUE; BERNOULLI, SPOK STUGGLE TO ENGAGE

Extension Healthcare's knowledgeable staff often have clinical or engineering backgrounds that help them understand how to reduce alarm fatigue. Similarly, Connexall is praised for their hands-on training that helps customers understand which features impact alarm fatigue most. Cerner customers receive strong guidance for installations, but some note that it is not as centered on reducing fatigue as they would prefer. Bernoulli customers say the vendor's webinars are valuable; customers suggest Bernoulli could improve by proactively offering advice. Spok struggles to share common pitfalls, causing customers to feel abandoned. While Spok does share best practices, this is done via email, a practice customers find impersonal.

3. EXTENSION HEALTHCARE, CONNEXALL, CERNER BEST AT ROUTING NOTIFICATIONS

Extension Healthcare, Connexall, and Cerner route the most varied types of alarms, and customers are satisfied. Extension helps decrease fatigue by giving users control over the frequency and types of notifications delivered. Connexall customers highlight color-coded alarms and rules-based notification filtering that improve escalation accuracy. Though not entirely unique, Cerner allows users to sync tones to specific alarm priority levels. Spok and Extension focus on secure messaging with secure texting applications. Spok customers route alerts and communications more than alarms. Bernoulli has expanded beyond ventilators; their customers route pulse oximetry alarms the most. Compared to other vendors' customers, Bernoulli's route less diverse notifications.

4. MIDDLEWARE ANALYTICS DO NOT HELP REDUCE NOTIFICATION FATIGUE; BERNOULLI OFFERS GOOD STATUS REPORTS

Fewer providers use Bernoulli reports. Those who do state that the reports do not reduce alarm fatigue but are good for status checks and details on alarm time stamps, system performance, and whether clinical intervention occurred. Connexall meets customer needs with web-based reports that help automate settings and solid support for creating customized reports. Cerner and Extension Healthcare customers are underwhelmed by generic reports that are difficult to customize. Dissatisfaction is highest for Spok providers, who must rely on Spok to pull and deliver reports; additionally data older than seven days is automatically thrown out and must be recovered if needed.

Rauland-Borg and Philips: Other Vendors beyond Middleware Are Helping Providers Reduce Notification Fatigue

Those using Rauland-Borg for nurse call and Philips for patient monitoring say their vendors help reduce alarm fatigue. Rauland-Borg customers are offered strategic direction and best parctices, while Philips' customers say their vendor works hand-in-hand with their alarm-fatigue committees.