Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are systems derived to enhance healthcare through improved medical, clinical knowledge, and other patient and health information (Sutton et al., 2020). According to Sutton et al. (2020), CDSS has various advantages such as clinic management, cost containment, administrative functions, diagnostics support, and patient safety. However, in safeguarding and preventing medical errors, CDSS systems may fuel certain drawbacks such as noise pollution from alarm systems. Constant alarms in a healthcare system may necessitate immunity from medical practitioners. This immunity is referred to as alarm fatigue that may revolutionize errors in the healthcare system as important medication, and life-saving conditions can be overlooked. Studies have recommended limiting alarm systems to only the necessary ones ( Khalifa & Zabani, 2016) . However, the limiting of these alarm systems may pose major threats than advantages. In this paper, we look at the disadvantages of limiting alarm systems to mitigate alarm fatigue.
The first disadvantage of limiting alarm systems is that it may jeopardize patient's health. According to Khalifa & Zabani (2016), a limiting alarm system plays an important role in reducing alarm fatigue. However, this limitation may result in serious health conditions in healthcare systems for patients due to missed medical administration. Limiting alarm systems increases the chances of doctors and nurses forgetting to attend to patients, which worsens the patient's health due to lack of attention.
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Moreover, limiting alarm systems may result in less control and increased confusion. More patients with illnesses that require frequent medication confirm a high number of alarms in an organization. Limiting these systems will imply that nurses will have limited control over medication administration since they lack a reminder when medication time is due. The lack of reminders will confuse the healthcare system since the medical practitioner is not sure to whom to administer medication and at what time.
Finally, limiting alarm systems may result in increased mortality rate. Alarm systems usually serve as a reminder for medical practitioners to administer medication and treatment to certain patients. With limited alarms, the nurses and doctors may fail to deliver the necessary medication to the critical patients leading to the patient's demise. Eventually, patients are neglected.
Conclusion
Clinical decision support systems come with both advantages and disadvantages in a healthcare organization. The advantages include efficient administration of medication and critical treatment to patients, while a major advantage is the alarm fatigue caused due to constant alarm systems in the healthcare organization. Researchers have proposed limiting the alarm systems as a remedy to alarm fatigue which may result in varied disadvantages in the healthcare organization, such as the death of patients. Specialists and researchers in CDSS systems should explore other means to mitigate alarm fatigue with effective control methods and fewer patient effects.
References
Khalifa, M., & Zabani, I. (2016). Improving Utilization of Clinical Decision Support Systems by Reducing Alert Fatigue: Strategies and Recommendations. In ICIMTH 226, 51-54.
Sutton, R. T., Pincock, D., Baumgart, D. C., Sadowski, D. C., Fedorak, R. N., & Kroeker, K. I. (2020). An overview of clinical decision support systems: benefits, risks, and strategies for success. NPJ digital medicine , 3 (1), 1-10.
