Improving the Care and Management of Inpatients Receiving Opioids for Pain Management

Abstract

Opioid-induced respiratory depression (OIRD) is becoming a patient safety risk as medical-surgical units (MSUs) are increasingly caring for higher-acuity patients. These patients, often experiencing obstructive or central sleep apnea (OSA & CSA), require more continuous real-time monitoring. The need for increased continuous monitoring also carries with it increasing quantities of annunciated alarms associated with events detected as these patients are monitored. Methods for reducing these alarms, most of which are false or non-actionable, without increasing patient safety risk is a key challenge. One approach for mitigating the annunciation of alarms is the creation of combinatorial alarm signals that incorporate multiple measured parameters to assist in the identification of actionable alarm signals which can mitigate non-actionable alarm signals and their effect on an already-stressed care provider staff.