New patent application published for: CONTROLLING THE REOCCURANCE OF AN ALARM

CONTROLLING THE REOCCURANCE OF AN ALARM

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of controlling the reoccurrence of an alarm for a subject undergoing physiological patient monitoring, the computer-implemented method comprising, responsive to the occurrence of an alarm: obtaining first information that changes responsive to any changes in a condition of the subject and/or any changes in a condition of one or more clinicians responsible for the subject; processing the first information to determine a minimum length for a silence period, wherein the silence period is a period for which the alarm is to remain silent after an indication to silence the alarm is received; responsive to receiving the indication to silence the alarm, initiating the silence period and preventing the alarm from reoccurring at least until an elapsed length of the silence period breaches the minimum length for the silence period; and during the silence period, iteratively: obtaining updated first information; and processing the updated first information to redetermine the minimum length for the silence period, wherein processing the updated first information comprises increasing the minimum length for the silence period responsive to the updated first information meeting one or more first predetermined criteria.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises information that is independent from the occurrence of the alarm.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein: the first information comprises clinician information that changes responsive to an availability of the one or more clinicians to attend to the subject; and processing the first information comprises processing at least the clinician information.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the clinician information comprises schedule information that indicates a schedule of the one or more clinicians.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the clinician information comprises attention information that indicates a level of attention paid by the clinician to the subject undergoing physiological patient monitoring.
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the clinician information comprises location information that indicates a proximity of the one or more clinicians to the subject undergoing physiological patient monitoring.
7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein: the first information comprises subject condition information that changes responsive to any changes in the condition of the subject; and processing the first information comprises processing at least the subject information.
8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein: the alarm is responsive to a value of at least one alarm parameter derived from one or more monitored physiological parameters; and the subject condition information changes responsive to any changes in the value of each alarm parameter.
9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein: the first information comprises subject intervention information that changes responsive to the occurrence of any clinical interventions performed on the subject; and processing the first information comprises processing at least the subject intervention information.
10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to receiving an indication to silence the alarm, controlling a user interface to provide a user-perceptible output responsive to the minimum length for the silence period.
11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to the occurrence of an alarm: processing the first information to determine a maximum length for the silence period; and responsive to receiving an indication to silence the alarm, triggering the reoccurrence of the alarm when the maximum length for the silence period has elapsed.
12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising, responsive to receiving an indication to silence the alarm after the occurrence of the alarm, triggering the reoccurrence of the alarm responsive to: the elapsed length of the silence period falling between the minimum length and the maximum length of the silence period; and receiving a trigger signal for triggering the reoccurrence of the alarm.
13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the trigger signal is an indication that a clinician is interacting or observing the subject.
14. A non-transitory computer-re a that stores therein a computer program product comprising computer program code means which, when executed on a computing device having a processing system, cause the processing system to perform all of the steps of the method according to claim 1.
15. A processing system for controlling the reoccurrence of an alarm for a subject undergoing physiological patient monitoring, the processing system being configured to, responsive to the occurrence of an alarm: obtain first information that changes responsive to a condition of the subject and/or one or more clinicians responsible for the subject; process the first information to determine a minimum length for a silence period, wherein the silence period is a period for which the alarm is to remain silent after an indication to silence the alarm is received; responsive to receiving the indication to silence the alarm, initiate the silence period and prevent the alarm from reoccurring at least until an elapsed length of the silence period breaches the minimum length for the silence period; and during the silence period, iteratively: obtain updated first information; and process the updated first information to redetermine the minimum length for the silence period, wherein the processing system is configured to process the updated first information by at least increasing the minimum length for the silence period responsive to the updated first information meeting one or more first predetermined criteria.