A wave of recent studies show that a large percentage of patients who are on cardiac monitors do not need to be - an overuse of technology that has seemed harmless in the past but that medical experts are realizing contributes to the serious problem of alarm fatigue for nurses. A study headed by Yale found widespread over- monitoring. Why is it so hard to step away from technology in our medical culture? Marjorie Funk, lead author of the Yale study, said some doctors use monitors as “babysitters’’ believing that they are safer on them, without thinking about the harm that comes with overuse.
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Based on what I see in practice the studies are correct but it is not likely to change things. The technology once installed costs very little to use. If it is not used inventively some lawyer will bring this up in court if a patients dies or is hurt. Throw in the idiotic new contracts that penalize hospitals for unpreventable incident into the mix and more patients will get monitors. To do something about this we need a healthcare system that places the patient at its center rather than parasites(lawyers, insurers, administrators, etc). There are no signs that this will ever happen in the US.