Ascom and Dräger announce partnership to deliver clinical alarm management solutions to healthcare providers

Ascom partners with Dräger, a leading producer of medical and safety technology, to integrate the Ascom industry leading Ascom Unite clinical messaging platform and Dräger's patient monitoring systems. The joint solution provides location agnostic alerts combining outcome quality and operational efficiency with reporting and analytics.

The Ascom Unite system extends the reach of patient status alarms generated by Dräger vital signs monitors and therapy devices integrated with the monitors. Ascom Unite distributes clinical alert notifications along with critical data and related contextual information to mobile devices carried by care team members, who might not be at the sides of their patients requiring assistance.

Ascom Unite directs alerts to only those responsible for the care of the patients requiring clinical intervention, leaving other nearby care providers to work without interruption. Reducing the number of audible alerts and pages broadcast for all to hear helps alleviate alarm fatigue that is generally experienced by care providers in high-volume, high acuity care areas. Ascom Unite's intelligent alarm filtering further minimizes the care providers' exposure to low-priority, routine alerts that might ordinarily contribute to workflow bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Patients benefit from quicker responses and more focused care providers as well as quieter healing environments. The joint solution will be made available on markets served by Ascom and Dräger subject to necessary approvals.

"The new partnership with Ascom is an exciting and important step in making enhanced alarm management solutions available to hospitals worldwide," says Steffen Protsch, Senior Vice President of Medical Systems at Dräger. "We are pleased to further help the users of Dräger monitors and therapy devices improve their workflow and patient safety."

André Neu, Senior Vice President Platform Solutions at Ascom states: "Enabling mobile access to patient monitoring events leverages and extends the reach of a hospital's patient monitoring system investment. By partnering with Dräger, Ascom will be able to boost workflow effectiveness by helping mobile caregivers avoid unnecessary work interruptions and support faster decision making."

Ascom Unite records information associated with each patient event, including the priority level of an alert, patient data and waveform images sent to the mobile device from the monitor, the start time of the alarm received from the monitor, and the time of the caregiver's response. Periodic review of these records can be useful in evaluating alarm response procedures and in demonstrating the effectiveness of a response strategy.