Publish date: 4 June 2025
Congratulations to the team in our new Low Secure site in Maghull, which has been highlighted by Building Better Healthcare for using technology to massively reduce false door alarms.
Frequent false alarms create barriers to a calm, therapeutic environment and Aspen Wood was experiencing more than 600 of these a month. In other parts of the country, there were reports of ‘false alarm fatigue’ meaning real incidents might be overlooked.
Aspen Wood leads had identified that alarm overload was a patient safety issue and our clinicians worked with external tech partners to make improvements. The team looked at training, sensitivity adjustments and smarter data logging. This cut the 600 alarms a month down to just 6 by April this year: a reduction of 99 percent, just as the LSU marked its first anniversary of opening.
Chris Murphy, our Assistant Director of Estates and Facilities, said: “What made this initiative work was the openness on all sides. Together, we made the full-door ligature system smarter and safer—and created a model for other NHS Trusts.”
Aspen Wood's lead, Chris Stewart, who is Head of Operations for Inpatient Low Secure LD Services, thanks the whole team. Chris notes the vital work on the improvements by Phil Searle, Hodder Ward manager. Phil has been linked in with the external organisations throughout the process using their live dashboard technology to ensure emerging issues were tested and addressed.
You can read the full article here:
https://www.buildingbetterhealthcare.com/tackling-alarm-fatigue
