Table 5.

Critical short half-life infusions and alarms in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Parameter		Frequency by drug type, n				Critical short half-life infusions and alarms for four drugs, n	Total infusion starts and alarms, n	Critical short half-life infusions and alarms for four drugs out of total infusion starts and alarms, %	Alarms for four drugs out of all critical short half-life infusion starts (N=3623), %
		DOBa	DAb	ADc	NADd
Total infusion starts		2509	96	58	960	3623	30,527	11.87	N/Ae
Alarm types
	Callback	2776	15	28	459	3278	22,396	14.64	90.48
	Drive engage failure	25	19	0	13	57	5629	1.01	1.57
	End of infusion	38	13	1	4	56	4650	1.20	1.55
	Near end of infusion	342	1	19	92	454	10,695	4.24	12.53
	Occlusion (downstream)	267	114	12	120	513	62,944	0.82	14.16
	Syringe disengaged	29	21	0	28	78	6738	1.16	2.15
	End of syringe	3	2	0	0	5	225	2.22	0.14

^aDOB: dobutamine.

^bDA: dopamine.

^cAD: adrenaline.

^dNAD: noradrenaline.

^eN/A: not applicable.