Welch Allyn Acuity Directions For Use Manual page 8

4 Chapter 1 General information
Related to close physical surveillance and specific patient populations
WARNING Ensure that the volume level on your computer is not set too low or
is not set to mute as this may cause you to miss audible alarms generated from
the Acuity System.
WARNING Replace central station hardware within the the lesser of 3 years or
the original equipment manufacturer's specification. Failure to perform
preventative maintenance can impact system performance and availability.
WARNING The bedside patient monitor is the primary alarming source for the
patient, and the central station is a backup alarm source. The central station is
only as reliable as its network and should be relied on only as a backup alarming
device.
WARNING Lethal arrhythmia (LTA) analysis by the central station is only as
reliable as the connection to the bedside monitor. With the exception of the
Welch Allyn 1500 monitor in a disconnected state, which provides its own LTA
analysis and alarm, the central station is the primary source for LTA analysis. LTA
alarms will occur at the central station and will also be communicated to the
bedside monitor for annunciation. Thus, in a central station workflow, LTA
analysis and alarming will only be as reliable as the network.
WARNING A paired system CPU (high-availability pair) is strongly recommended
to provide system redundancy.
WARNING The electronic medical record system (EMR) is not intended to serve
as a primary monitoring system for alarms or as an exclusive source for patient
data in determining patient care. The Acuity System is capable of transferring
historical patient data to most customer-specified EMR systems through the
Welch Allyn Connectivity Server (WACS). However, the transferred patient data is
not a substitute for the patient data collected by the primary monitoring system.
WARNING It is important that clinicians understand and communicate to all
staff using the Acuity Central Station that any arrhythmia analysis software
program is an effective tool to assist in patient care, but arrhythmia analysis
packages are unable to achieve 100 percent accuracy for all morphologies and
occurrences of QRS and PVC detection. Thus, close physical surveillance and
clinical interpretation of cardiac data must still be an integral part of every
patient's care. Clinicians must review all data obtained from the Acuity System
before implementing therapy based on the data.
WARNING Ensure that Acuity System patients are kept under close
surveillance, especially patients prone to arrhythmia events. Use the Acuity
System only in conjunction with close surveillance by trained clinicians.
Welch Allyn Acuity Central Monitoring System