An Automated NSW Smart Solutions Guide

The Day Their Alarm Started to Matter

A Hospital’s Alarm Management Journey

In building automation and management systems, alarms are meant to serve as critical signals that demand attention and action. However, when systems are poorly configured, these crucial alerts can quickly become background noise, ignored and ineffective. This phenomenon, commonly known as “alarm fatigue,” creates dangerous blind spots in facility operations. Our team recently experienced a perfect example of this at a healthcare facility, where implementing proper alarm management principles improved system operations and potentially safeguarded patient safety.

The Day Alarms Started to Matter

On my second day working at a hospital, I was assigned to tackle alarm management and cleanup for the Building Management System (BMS). While I was working, several alarms appeared on the status page for an air handling unit. Not all alarms are created equal, of course. An alarm or even a brief outage is not usually a big deal for equipment serving cafeteria or office areas. It’s the type of situation the team would investigate eventually, after more important tasks were completed.

But any building with critical areas like manufacturing suites, laboratories, and operating rooms should also have critical alarms. For example, a series of scrub and gown rooms leading into an operating room creates a cascade of air pressure that protects patients at their most vulnerable. At least, it would if the air handler serving the area is running normally.

I notified the Facilities Team that they had lost a critical AHU, but they dismissed it outright, claiming the alarms were meaningless because they were always active and unreliable. The alarms had been triggered so many times that the team had learned to ignore them so they could focus on what they considered actual problems.

Unconvinced, I pulled up the BMS graphics for the AHU in question to get more information. Sure enough, the unit was down. When presented with this evidence, the team immediately sprang into action to restore it. That moment shifted their perspective because ignoring the alarms could have had real consequences for the employees and patients in the building.

By the time I completed the alarm management cleanup, the team had made the alarm page a 24/7 priority. It’s now actively monitored and reviewed during shift turnovers to ensure any critical alarms are addressed immediately.

Building a Culture of Meaningful Alarms

This experience reinforces why proper alarm management isn’t just a technical exercise—it’s about transforming how teams perceive and respond to their systems. The ISA-18.2 standard exists precisely because situations like this hospital scenario play out across industries daily. Organizations often struggle to distinguish between critical alerts that demand immediate attention and routine notifications that can be addressed during normal maintenance.

In our upcoming series on ISA-18.2, we’ll dive deeper into each phase of the alarm management lifecycle, from philosophy development to implementation and ongoing maintenance. We’ll explore how to establish proper alarm rationalization protocols, design effective alarm categorization systems, and create a sustainable management of change process that keeps your alarm system relevant as your facility evolves. Whether you’re managing a hospital environment, manufacturing facility, or commercial building, understanding these principles will help you transform your alarms from annoying distractions into valuable operational tools that enhance safety, efficiency, and peace of mind.