All too often, patients admitted to hospitals suffer from unanticipated adverse clinical events, many of which are preventable. Surprisingly, 35% to 40% of hospital deaths occur on medical surgical floors not meant for the most critically ill patients.

Patients on the med-surg floor are sicker than they were in the past. These patients require more intensive care and as a result some hospitals have chosen to add continuous ICU-level monitors to the floors with an alarming workflow. The alarms let the caregiver know when a patient’s vital signs have gone outside of an acceptable boundary. The hope is that it will allow the caregiver to intervene before the patient suffers a Serious Adverse Event (SAE), like a myocardial infarction.