Machine Alarms

Question 1

What causes an alarm for the Air/Foam detector? And what is the intervention?

Answer 1

Cause: Air in blood lines
Intervention: Look at the circuit for blood in the system. DO NOT return blood with air in the system.

Question 2

What causes an alarm for Blood leak Detector? and what is the intervention?

Answer 2

Cause: Air bubbles in dialysate, dirty sensor
Intervention: Check dialysate connections, bleach machine

Question 3

Causes of a TMP alarm? Intervention?

Answer 3

Cause: Wet transducers, change in UF goal, clamped transducer lines
Intervention: Check transducer lines for clamping or wet transducers, evaluate goal to remove additional fluid during the hour

Question 4

Causes of High/ more negative Arterial Pressure alarm? Intervention?

Answer 4

causes: arterial needle clotted, infiltrated, or poorly positioned
Kinking of the arterial blood tubing between access and monitor- hypotension

Intervention: check needle placement, ensure lines are not kinked, check tape to ensure they are not kinked or applied too tightly

Question 5

Causes of a Low/more positive arterial pressure alarm? Intervention?

Answer 5

Cause: separation of blood tubing from arterial access- Decrease in blood pump speed
Intervention: Verify connections are secure/ increase blood pump speed

Question 6

Causes of a High/ more positive venous pressure alarm? Intervention?

Answer 6

Cause: Kink in tubing between monitor and patient, clotting in drip chamber, infiltration, poor needle placement, poorly working CVC, venous stenosis, increase in blood flow
Intervention: flush system with normal saline, check needle position, reverse lines on dialysis catheter if able, and decrease BFR (Need to notify physician for an order)

Question 7

Causes of a Low/More negative venous pressure alarm? Intervention?

Answer 7

Cause: Separation of blood tubing from the venous needles or catheter, drop in blood flow rate, blockage in the blood tubing before the monitoring site, severely clotted dialyzer, saline infusion
Intervention: Verify normal saline line is clamped, increase BFR

Question 8

Cause of a Conductivity and PH alarm? Intervention?

Answer 8

Cause: when the dialysate is mixed incorrectly or there is no water, acid or bicarb, however, dialysate can be mixed improperly and machine still goes into conductivity because sodium is the primary ion contributing to conductivity.
Intervention: Recheck dialysate conductivity, place the machines in bypass, potentially change to a different dialysate of the same prescription to see if alarm issue is resolved.

Question 9

Cause of a temperature alarm? Intervention?

Answer 9

Cause: Broken thermometer, asking for temperature out of range of what the machine can handle
Intervention: Contact biomed, allow machine to run for an additional time to stabilize the temperature

Question 10

Cause of a Heparin alarm? Intervention?

Answer 10

Cause: Clamped heparin line, heparin dose administration complete
Intervention: Evaluate if maintenance dose is to be given, unclamp line, and stop administration if dose is complete