Best Practices in Managing Health Technology: What We Learned from the 2012 Health Devices Achievement Award Finalists

The winner: The Johns Hopkins Hospital of Baltimore, Maryland

Each year, ECRI Institute presents the Health Devices Achievement Award to the member facility that has implemented the most exceptional initiative to improve patient safety, reduce costs, or otherwise facilitate better strategic management of health technology. For 2012, that honor was bestowed on The Johns Hopkins Hospital of Baltimore, Maryland, whose systematic approach to improving the management of physiologic monitoring alarms yielded substantial reductions in the kinds of clinically insignificant alarms that can lead to alarm fatigue.

But the winning initiative wasn’t the only impressive submission. Five additional entries were selected as finalists and received consideration for the top slot. We describe the winning submission and the five runners-up not only to give the participating facilities well-deserved recognition for their efforts, but also to share best practices and techniques that other facilities can learn from and emulate.

Baltimore,...