1. In
August 2012, Mercy Medical Cen-
ter in Dubuque, Iowa completed
a $13 million renovation of their
Intensive Care Unit which included steps to
save time which, they say, leads to saving
lives.
In conjunction with Spacelabs patient
monitors, the Mercy ICU team implement-
ed Clinical Access™, a new piece of tech-
nology which allows doctors to log onto a
computer at home or at their office to view
a monitor displaying the patient’s vital
signs.
Upon opening the newly renovated ICU,
Director Bob Wethal MHA, BSN, RN stated
in an interview with KCRG News, “When
the nurse is here and if a patient isn’t doing
well, we can call the physician and instead
of just explaining to them what we are see-
ing, they can actually see all the vital signs,
see all the wave forms and see what the
ventilator is doing.”
Director Wethal was referencing Spacelabs’
The Journey Continues: Assurance™ Provides Alarm
Management Strategies for Medical Caregivers at the
Bedside
Mercy Medical Center, Dubuque, Iowa.
Mercy Medical Center ICU: Spacelabs technology allows
care teams to view critical information at the bedside
and from other locations, to collaborate on high quality
patient care.
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2. Clinical Access which allows doctors to
access retroactive patient monitor values
and trends where and when needed, in or-
der to coordinate timely patient care from
inside or outside the hospital.
Early in 2014, Director Wethal and his
team at Mercy took another insightful step
forward.
In sync with The Joint Com-
mission’s 2014 alarm fatigue
management mandate, Mer-
cy implemented Spacelabs
Assurance software, which is designed to
help caregivers set appropriate individual
patient care alarms, decrease false alarms
and minimize alarm fatigue.
Assurance features such as alarm history
bar, learned alarms, and tiered alarms
alert hospital staff to changes in patient
condition and allow caregivers to review
information they may have missed while
taking care of other patients.
We recently asked Director Wethal to
share the impact that Assur-
ance software has had on
his staff and ICU patients.
“Assurance’s alarm history
feature has helped encour-
age our doctors and nurses to review
patient events and discuss appropriate
alarm settings,” he said. “With Spacelabs
bedside monitors and Assurance software,
“Our nurses are better
able to determine
appropriate patient
alarm limits...”
About Mercy
Medical Center
Service area: Dubuque,
Iowa and surrounding
counties in Iowa, Illinois and
Wisconsin
Accreditation: The Joint
Commission
Recognition: Magnet
TM
designation by the American
Nurses Credentialing Center
in 2004 & consecutive re-
designation in both 2009
and 2014.
Also named one of the
nation's 100 Top Hospitals
for 2008 by Thomson
Reuters, a leading provider
of information and solutions
to improve the cost and
quality of health care
Mercy Medical Center is a
member of Mercy Health
Network in Iowa, and is a
Ministry Organization of
Trinity Health based in Novi,
Michigan.
Mercy Medical Center ICU Director
Robert Wethal, MHA, BSN, RN
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3. our nurses are better able to determine
appropriate patient alarm limits and the
numbers of alarms that occur in our ICU
have decreased.”
Providing helpful solutions for health care
providers dealing with alarms and inter-
ruptions at the bedside is an important
focus for Spacelabs Healthcare, in coop-
eration with national alarms management
task forces and the Association for the
Advancement of Medical Instrumentation
(AAMI).
Since its origin inventing telemetry mon-
itoring for NASA astronauts during the
1958 Gemini mission, Spacelabs Health-
care has focused on innovative solutions
to support a safe and high quality care
experience.
Spacelabs’ latest suite of monitoring prod-
ucts continues this rich tradition by al-
lowing clinical staff to receive meaningful,
actionable information about the status of
their patients, and keep patients and their
care teams connected to each other from
near and remote locations.
35301 SE Center Street Snoqualmie, Washington 98065 | T +14253963300 |+18005227025 • 1HarfordeCourt,JohnTateRoad,Hertford,SG137NW,UK | T +44(0)1992507700 | F +44(0)1992501213
w w w . s p a c e l a b s h e a l t h c a r e . c o m © 2015 Spacelabs Healthcare Specifications subject to change without notice. 850-0468-00 Rev A PG 3 of 3
Spacelabs central monitoring stations in Mercy’s Intensive Care Unit alert care teams of patient information and alarms,
both in and outside their patient room.