Alarms are safety features used to notify staff of critical situations involving patients or staff. Alarms are typically used by healthcare providers and configured by Administrators. There are several types of alarms, such as the Patient Walkout Alarm, Isolated Location Alarm, and Staff Assistance Alarm, which help in situations like preventing patients from leaving a unit unescorted, detecting when patients are alone in risk-prone areas, and alerting staff to emergencies when assistance is needed. Alarms are activated when certain conditions, such as a patient moving out of a designated area or being left alone in an isolated location, are met.
Alarms are configured in the RTLS Global Settings on the Capacity Management Administration page and appear in the Patient Tracking Portal or Capacity IQ® PreAdmit applications.
How Alarms Work
Functionality
Alarms can be configured for specific units or locations and are essential for maintaining safety protocols in healthcare environments.
Users can acknowledge alarms within the application, ensuring appropriate actions are taken.
If configured, emails are sent to relevant staff with notifications of alarms that have been raised.
A Staff Tracking license, a Patient Tracking and a Staff Tracking license together, or either license is required to use alarms, depending on which alarm features your organization utilizes.
A TeleTracking representative can help you to obtain licenses.
Alarm Feature | Staff Tracking | Both Licenses | Either License |
Alarms reports | x | ||
Patient walkout alarm | x | ||
Isolated location alarm | x | ||
Staff assistance alarm | x |
If you see an alarm warning, and there are earlier alarm warnings that have not been acknowledged yet, a list of the earlier alarm warnings appears under Additional Alarms.
If Capacity IQ® is fully integrated with Location IQ®, three alarms can be enabled that can help you to keep patients and staff members safe. The alarms are:
Patient Walkout Alarm
Isolated Location Alarm
Staff Assistance Alarm
Patient Walkout Alarm
A patient walkout alarm is helpful for units with certain patient populations, such as dementia patients or prisoners.
If a patient wearing a Location IQ® badge leaves the unit where their home location is and that patient is not accompanied by a staff member wearing a badge, then a beacon detects the patient's badge.
An alarm sounds and a warning appears on staff members' computers, and an email can be sent automatically to one or more email addresses when this alarm is raised.
After a staff member's badge has been scanned at an exit monitor, the alarm will be disabled temporarily
for the number of seconds designated so that one patient can also exit OR
until after one patient exits the unit (whichever comes first).
An alarm warning appears on the unit’s Patient Tracking Portal list view.
The Patient Walkout Alarm setting must be configured for each unit that will use this alarm.
In the RTLS > Global Settings, you can enable patient walkout alarms, specify recipient email addresses for alarm notifications, and set a temporary disable duration (in seconds) to allow staff to safely escort patients from the unit.
Pieces of equipment called exit monitors are installed at exits in the units and are used to scan staff badges.
A device called a beacon is installed outside the patient's home location and is used to detect patient badges.
The unit that the patient is leaving must be displayed on the Patient Tracking Portal list view for the alarm warning to appear.
Sometimes patients who require walkout alarms are on the same unit with patients who do not.
If there is no need for an alarm when a patient leaves their home location unit without being escorted by a staff member, select the Patient Walkout Alarm Opt Out check box on the Patient/Placement Details form.
If Capacity IQ® is NOT integrated with Location IQ®, then this option is not available.
If Capacity IQ® becomes unavailable (for example, a power cord on the server becomes disconnected accidentally), but Location IQ® is available, and a patient walks out during that time, the alarm will be raised after Capacity IQ® becomes available again.
Isolated Location Alarm
The isolated location alarm is helpful for locations where patients who are at risk for falling might be alone, such as shower rooms or bathrooms.
After a patient who is wearing a Location IQ® badge has been in an isolated location for a specified number of minutes without a staff member who is wearing a badge, the alarm will sound, a warning will appear on staff members' computer screens in the Patient Tracking Portal application, and an email can be sent automatically to one or more email addresses if it is configured.
The Isolated Location Alarm setting must be configured for each location that will use this alarm.
The location must be associated with a Location IQ® location.
In the RTLS > Global Settings, you can enable the Isolated Location alarms, enter the email addresses that should be notified when this alarm is raised, and enter a number of minutes that a patient can be isolated without a staff member before the alarm sounds.
If a staff member enters the isolated location and then leaves while the patient is still there, the timer that counts the number of minutes that the patient has been alone starts over again.
The location must be within the unit that is displayed on the Patient Tracking Portal list view for the alarm warning to appear.
If Capacity IQ® becomes unavailable (e.g., due to an accidental server power outage), but Location IQ® remains operational and detects a patient in an isolated location, an alarm will be triggered if the patient is still detected in the isolated location once Capacity IQ® is restored.
If the patient is not detected in the isolated location after Capacity IQ® becomes available, then the alarm will NOT be raised.
Staff Assistance Alarm
If a staff member presses a button on their staff badge to indicate that they need someone to come and help them, an alarm will sound, and a warning will appear on other staff members' computer screens in the Patient Tracking Portal application.
If the staff member presses the button at a time when the Patient Tracking Portal application is not open on any unit staff member's computer, an email can be sent automatically to one or more email addresses indicating that help is needed.
In the RTLS > Global Settings, you can enable the alarm and enter the email addresses that should receive notifications if no unit staff member has the Patient Tracking Portal application open.
The location where the staff member is requesting help must be within the unit that is displayed on the Patient Tracking Portal list view for the alarm warning to appear. A staff assistance alarm looks similar to the following.
If Capacity IQ® becomes unavailable (for example, a power cord on the server becomes disconnected accidentally), but Location IQ® is available, and a staff member presses a button on their staff badge during that time, the alarm will NOT be raised after Capacity IQ® becomes available again.
To Configure Alarms:
Make sure:
The Patient Walkout Alarm setting has been configured for all units that will use it.
The Isolated Location setting has been configured for all locations that will use the Isolation Location Alarm.
Go to Admin > Settings > Capacity Management > Enterprise Management > Enterprise Information.
On the Enterprise Information tab in the Campus column, click the campus for which you want to configure the alarms.
Click the Global Settings tab, and then click RTLS to display the RTLS Global Settings page.
In the Patient in Isolated Location Alarm box:
Next to Enable Alarm, click the gray Disabled button to make it a green Enabled button.
In the Alarm Timer (Minutes) box, type the number of minutes that a badged patient can be alone in a location that has been marked as isolated without a badged staff member. After this number of minutes, an alarm will sound, and a warning will appear on staff members' computers in the Patient Tracking Portal application so that staff members can go to the location and check on the patient.
In the Notification Email(s) box, type the email address that should receive a message if the alarm is raised (for example, supervisors@abchospital.com).
In the Patient Walkout Alarm box:
Next to Enable Alarm, click the gray Disabled button to make it a green Enabled button.
In the Alarm Timer (Seconds) box, type the number of seconds for which the alarm will be disabled after an exit monitor detects a badged staff member leaving the unit so that a patient can also leave the unit. After a staff member's badge has been scanned at an exit monitor, the alarm will be disabled temporarily 1) for the number of seconds entered so that one patient can also exit OR 2) until after one patient exits the unit (whichever comes first). After that, if a badged patient exits without a badged staff member, an alarm will sound and a warning will appear in the Patient Tracking Portal application on the staff members' computer screens.
In the Notification Email(s) box, type the email address that should receive a message if the alarm is raised (for example, supervisors@abchospital.com).
In the Staff Assistance Alarm box:
Next to Enable Alarm, click the gray Disabled button to make it a green Enabled button.
In the Notification Email(s) box, type the email address that should receive a message if a staff member presses a button on a staff badge when no one has the unit displayed on their computer (for example, supervisors@abchospital.com).
Click Save.
To Acknowledge an Alarm That Appears on Your Screen
Click the arrow next to Slide to Acknowledge.
Move it to the right.
The time of acknowledgment will be captured.
To acknowledge an additional (earlier) alarm:
Click the row where the additional alarm is listed to display the information at the top.
When the additional alarm is displayed, click the arrow next to Slide to Acknowledge.
Move it to the right.
The time of acknowledgment will be captured.
If a Patient Does Not Need a Walkout Alarm
Select whether notifications for Location IQ® alarms are sent to you and the method of sending the alarm notification.
Selecting Screen Alert will send information about Location IQ® alarms to your Alerts tab when a Location IQ® alarm is raised for a unit in your membership.
Selecting Full Screen Alarm shows a Location IQ® alarm message on your entire browser screen when a Location IQ® alarm is raised for a unit in your membership.
Set Care Progression Warnings and Alerts
Select whether you will receive warnings, alerts, or both when a care type in a care progression group remains in one status for a certain number of minutes (specified by the administrator).
A warning notifies you that action might be required soon.
An alert suggests that action should be taken as soon as possible.
Under Care Progression Threshold, select Enable Warning, Enable Alert, or both.
Use the magnifying glass icons to select the patient home wards and the care progression groups for which you want to receive the warnings and/or alerts.
You will receive alerts and warnings only about patients whose home locations are in the selected wards and only about the care progression groups that you select.
Click Save.