Solving the Previously Unsolvable Problem of Alarm Fatigue
Alarm fatigue is a longstanding and critical challenge in healthcare, particularly in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) environments. Excessive alarms negatively impact patient safety, nurse retention, and overall clinical performance. Historically labeled as “unsolvable,” resolving alarm fatigue requires innovative, system-wide solutions, and cross-functional team collaboration.
Alarm fatigue stems from excessive alarms that overwhelm clinicians, causing sensory overload, potential delays in clinical response, and increased risk of patient harm. Nurses and biomedical teams traditionally struggle to effectively prioritize critical alarms amidst pervasive noise, adversely affecting patient care quality and staff satisfaction.
Technical Challenge: Breaking Down Data Silos
A critical barrier to solving alarm fatigue is the isolation of vital clinical data in separate, incompatible systems. Philips IntelliBridge middleware and Epic EHR operate independently, creating data silos that have historically prevented comprehensive real-time analysis. Bridging these two distinct data environments requires sophisticated integration and data normalization.
CalmWave successfully overcame this significant technical challenge by collaborating closely with Wellstar’s highly adaptable IT team. Through innovative technological approaches, including Transparent AI and agile collaboration methods, CalmWave achieved seamless integration, providing clinicians with a unified, real-time operational view previously considered unattainable.
“CalmWave’s platform marks a potentially pivotal step for Wellstar at the intersection of clinical and operational excellence. It begins to address the foundational issue of alarm fatigue, paving the way for improvements across multiple areas of care.”
Dr. Hank Capps, EVP, Chief Information and Digital Officer, Wellstar Health System and President, Catalyst by Wellstar.
Partnering to Innovate
Catalyst by Wellstar identified CalmWave®, a Transparent AI healthcare technology company, as a strategic partner because of their unique work in pioneering a solution to address clinical alarm fatigue. CalmWave’s innovative solution aligns with Wellstar’s mission to enhance patient safety, improve clinical outcomes, and boost operational efficiency. CalmWave’s initial pilot, utilizing retrospective data, demonstrated a 58% reduction in non-actionable alarms, which are alerts triggered by monitoring systems that do not require immediate intervention or clinical response. The initial study suggested this reduction in alarms could be achieved safely, while enhancing patient safety. Encouraged by these promising results, Wellstar made a direct investment in CalmWave and piloted the technology in Wellstar Kennestone’s Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU), beginning in December 2025.
The collaboration involved close cooperation between CalmWave’s technology team, hospital leadership, nurses, physicians, and biomedical engineering (biomed) teams, harnessing collective expertise to implement and refine CalmWave’s solution effectively.
Transforming Hospital Data to Solve Alarm Fatigue
CalmWave ingested and transformed hospital data into the CalmWave Common Signal Format (CWC), a clean, well-structured data format purpose-built for advanced data science applications. This normalized and fused data set was then available for use by the hospital system for research, clinical studies, and more.
CalmWave implemented its Transparent AI platform at Wellstar Kennestone’s CICU, optimizing their alarm management. The platform aggregated, transformed, and analyzed real-time clinical data from both Wellstar’s Philips IntelliBridge and Epic data silos simultaneously, producing CalmWave Optimized (CWO) recommendations for clinicians to implement. This advanced AI solution identified alarms and reduced alarm volumes as the safe and patient-specific alarm limit adjustments were implemented, creating a calmer, safer environment for clinicians and patients.
Additionally, the platform offered improved visibility for clinicians by overlaying critical vasoactive medication data directly onto patient vital sign displays. This integrated view, previously unavailable without extensive navigation in Epic, empowers nurses and physicians to rapidly correlate medication impacts with patient status.
“Having medication information overlaid directly with patient vitals is game-changing. This visibility streamlines my workflow, letting me spend more time on patient care instead of data navigation.” — CICU Nurse, Wellstar Kennestone
The integration of the CalmWave platform involved deep collaboration between Wellstar’s Clinical, IT, Security, and Biomed teams, which worked closely with the CalmWave team, ensuring safe, seamless implementation and immediate impact.
“Partnering with CalmWave has allowed our Biomedical Engineering team to proactively address alarm issues, significantly improving our operational efficiency and patient safety.” — Ryan Saunders, AVP of Biomed, Wellstar
The CalmWave solution demonstrated strong results in the initial six weeks of the pilot:
The CalmWave platform achieved reductions in alarm frequencies, improved response times to critical patient events, and streamlined clinician workflow.
“As the first health care system in the United States to implement CalmWave, we have observed a significant reduction in the number of false telemetry alarms, which are alerts or warnings from medical monitoring equipment that go off even though there is no real problem with the patient, in our cardiac intensive care unit. This has a favorable impact on our nurses by allowing them more time at the bedside caring for critically ill patients rather than interrupting care to address false alarms. Therefore, CalmWave has the potential to achieve multiple goals including improving patient outcomes and enhancing nursing work satisfaction.” —Rajnish Prasad, MD, FACC, FCCP, Medical Director, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center
Scaling the Solution
“This is the first time in my career that we’ve effectively tackled alarm fatigue. Nurses now have the peace to focus on patient care rather than constant alarm interruptions.” — CICU Nurse Leader, Wellstar Kennestone
Following the successful pilot in the Kennestone CICU, Wellstar plans to expand CalmWave’s implementation across additional ICUs and hospital units. Furthermore, the partnership will leverage CalmWave’s Hospital Operations Platform to provide systemic value across nursing, physicians, biomedical engineering, risk management, and patient safety teams.
To learn more about how CalmWave’s Transparent AI solutions visit www.calmwave.ai.
