A Study of Silent Alarm Delivery Versus Standard Audible Alarm Delivery in Intensive Care and High Dependency Units

Does Eliminating Alarm Noise Cacophony for Intensive Care Staff and Patients Improve Burnout and Encephalopathy Levels

The goal of the trial is to learn if a strategy to eliminate audible alarm noise in intensive care and high dependency units can reduce overall noise levels, patient delirium, staff alarm fatigue, and staff burnout. Researchers will implement a silent alarm strategy in specific care units for four weeks and compare this to a separate 4 weeks where a silent strategy is not implemented. Noise, burnout, delirium levels, and staff alarm response times will be compared between the silent and non-silent units.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Admission to Intensive or high dependency care unit.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Pre-existing diagnosis of dementia
• Endotracheally intubated (may enroll when extubated)
• CNS injury, infection, or malignancy as reason for admission.