Arkansas Heart Hospital Upgrades to Masimo SET(R) Pulse Oximetry, Resulting in Significant Reduction in False Alarms and Improved Patient Care and Satisfaction

LITTLE ROCK, AR and IRVINE, CA--(Marketwired - Oct 23, 2014) - Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI) today announced that Arkansas Heart Hospital -- a nationally recognized and award-winning hospital dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease -- has upgraded hospital-wide to Masimo SET® pulse oximetry, leading to a dramatic reduction in false alarms and a significant increase in patient satisfaction.

Arkansas Heart Hospital embraces the patient-safety suggestions of leading health organizations, including the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, the Joint Commission, and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), which recommend continuous oxygenation and ventilation monitoring in patients receiving opioid-based pain medications.^1-3 Opioid analgesics are associated with adverse effects and cause respiratory depression in 0.50%, or 25 of every 5,000 post-surgical patients.^4-8

Arkansas Heart Hospital officials say that the previous pulse oximetry technology they used (Nellcor) created too many false alarms -- one of the top technology hazards in hospitals today, according to the ECRI Institute. Responding to actionable alarms is critical to prevent patient injury or death, but the frequency of false alarms can increase workload and desensitize clinicians to all alarms, putting patients at risk.

"We began to see a trend with alarms being turned off because of false alarms," said Jason Henry, Director of Respiratory Therapy at Arkansas Heart Hospital. "We implemented a program to increase the percentage of time that alarms were turned on, and after switching to Masimo we were able to achieve 100%."

"Patient movement and patients with poor perfusion had been causing a lot of the false alarms," said Chris Dent, Vice President of Clinical Services at Arkansas Heart Hospital. "Masimo SET technology reduced that dramatically -- its accuracy really helped us with our alarm management."

Patients at Arkansas Heart Hospital noticed the silence, which helped the hospital improve its Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores -- a national, standardized, publicly reported 27-item survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients' perceptions of their hospital experience.

"Quietness at night in the facility has a great impact on patient satisfaction," Henry said. "Patients rate us on the quietness of the environment and alarm management is key to that. We're very dependent on the accuracy of alarms, and Masimo has given our staff confidence that when alarms sound, something is truly happening with the patient."