[1] Alarm fatigue occurs in many fields, including construction[2] and mining[3] (where vehicle back-up alarms sound so frequently that they often become senseless background noise), healthcare[4] (where electronic monitors tracking clinical information such as vital signs and blood glucose sound alarms so frequently, and often for such minor reasons, that they lose the urgency and attention-grabbing power which they are intended to have), and the nuclear power field.
On April 18, 2013, the Joint Commission issued a sentinel event alert that highlighted the widespread problem of alarm fatigue in hospitals.
Some consequences are disruption in patient care,[10] desensitization to alarms,[11] anxiety in hospital staff and patients,[11] sleep deprivation and depressed immune systems,[11] misuse of monitor equipment including "work-arounds" such as turning down alarm volumes or adjusting device settings,[12][13] and missed critical events.
[14] Some additional outcomes include workload increase,[11] interference with communication,[14] wasted time, patient dissatisfaction,[14] and unnecessary investigations, referrals, or treatments.
An investigation by the US National Transportation Safety Board concluded that "the extremely high incidence of track-circuit alarms would have thoroughly desensitized [the dispatchers]".
Since 2012, weather alerts have been sent out to cell phones, but in 2020, federal officials set up a three-tier system so people would get this warning for the most serious situations.