TABLE 6. Unit-Wide Default Thresholds for Alarms as Well as Delays and Averaging Times for Alarms of Different Categories.
| Alarm category | GA < 26 weeks | GA 26–36 weeks | GA 37 weeks |
Delay (s) | Averaging times |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heart rate high (bpm) | 230 (200) | 230 (200) | 230 (200) | 0 (0) | 12 RR intervals |
| Heart rate low (bpm) | 80 (100) | 80 (100) | 60 (80) | 0 (0) | 12 RR intervals |
| SpO2 high (%) | n.a.(95) | n.a.(95) | n.a.(95) | n.a.(15) | 10s |
| SpO2 low (%) | 80 (85) | 80 (85) | 80 (92) | 10 (15) | 10s |
| Apnea time (s) | 20 | 20 | 20 | 0 | n.a. |
| Mean ABP high (mm Hg) | 55 (50) | 75 (70) | 75 (70) | 0 | – |
| Mean ABP low (mm Hg) | 19 (24) | 25 (30) | 31 (26) | 0 | – |
Legend: Gestational age (GA), oxygen saturation (SpO2), arterial blood pressure (ABP), beats per minute (bpm). High and low refer to the high and low limits of the physiologic variable. The first value refers to the critical red alarms, and the values between brackets refer to the yellow alarms. These limits remain unchanged during patient care in our NICU.