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’

Case Study: ???

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.

850-0468-00 Rev A PG 1 of 3

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: MagnetTM

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

850-0468-00 Rev A PG 2 of 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 +1 425 3963300 |+1 800 522 7025 • 1 Harforde Court, John Tate Road, Hertford, SG13 7NW, UK | T +44 (0)1992 507700 | F +44 (0)1992 501213w 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.