One of the largest Children’s Hospitals in the UK, Leeds Children’s Hospital, recently installed the Bedside Equipment Alarm Monitoring System (BEAMS) on one of its wards, significantly reducing the time taken to respond to alarms.

Developed for and in conjunction with Sheffield Children's Hospital by Tutum Medical, the technology aims to significantly improve response times for critical bedside alarms and is the only acoustic solution which listens formedical device alarms and notifies staff of the source, device, and type of alarm.

This allows staff to prioritise the most-critical alarms, which supports improved patient outcomes, better workflow for nurses, and reduced healthcare costs for hospitals.

Since its installation at Leeds Children’s Hospital, the technology has reduced the number of alarms taking more than five minutes to respond to by 57%, more than 30 minutes by 100%, and average response times are down by 43% to one minute and 42 seconds.Jenni France, ward manager at Leeds Children’s Hospital said, “We had heard from other children’s hospitals how this simple and easy system was significantly improving response times to critical equipment alarms.

Patient safety and better working conditions for nurses are vital, especially at a time of nurse shortages andincreased alarm fatigue and we are proud to be making a difference, not just at Leeds Children’s Hospital, but on wards across the country with our unique system

“We saw great results from a trial on Ward L30 where patient safety and reassurance for nursing staff markedly improved.

“We know immediately which patient’s device hasraised an alarm and the urgency of the alarm so we can prioritise alarm responses in seconds.”Paul Rawlinson, managing firector of Tutum Medical, added: “We are delighted Leeds Children’s Hospital has installed BEAMS and is seeing significant improvements in response times to alarms.

“Patient safety and better working conditions for nurses are vital, especially at a time of nurse shortages andincreased alarm fatigue and we are proud to be making a difference, not just at Leeds Children’s Hospital, but on wards across the country with our unique system.

”BEAMS is the world’s only acoustic bedside equipment critical alarm monitoring system and is designed to send the notification via Wi-Fi to a nurse console display located at the nurse station and to speakers along the corridors, which give a spoken notification.

BEAMS also creates its own Wi-Fi mesh network, which removes the need to interface to hospital infrastructure.Laura-Clare Whelan, deputy head of nursing at Leeds Children’s Hospital, said: “BEAMS gives us the assurance and support for both the nursing staff and families thattheir care and safety is a priority to us.

“Patients and parents will know that if an alarm is sounding their nurse will respond, particularly when they do notfeel able to call the nurse themselves.”The BEAMS system is now being trialled on otherwards at Leeds Children’s Hospital as well as other hospitals across the country.