Abstract
Alarms due to reasons other than life threatening situations are a distraction to the fire and rescue services and managers of occupancies. Such alarms represent a loss of opportunity to the business or operations undertaken there.
A significant proportion of alarms occur in hospitals, if the Automatic Fire Detection (AFD) system fails to operate correctly and causes a false alarm, or there is an environmental effect, which activates the alarm; such as cooking, steam, dust or insects. Unnecessary evacuation can be difficult for non-ambulant hospital patients.
Previous research programmes identified types and number of false and unwanted alarms in hospitals, and strategies for alleviating alarms, resulting in the setting of standards and targets, however without a clear scientific or statistical basis. The current programme involves a statistical technique to identify nationally under-performing hospitals, and a structure to promote best practice, resulting in a more informed basis for developing targets.
The research programme began with case studies to identify the issues associated with false and unwanted alarms in NHS hospitals, management, operation and maintenance of AFD systems. Then, a survey of such alarms in hospitals was carried out on a national basis. This was followed by a larger, more comprehensive survey of English NHS hospitals, gathering data directly from the relevant NHS trusts. The results comprised of a set of performance indicators – called Acceptability Factors, which indicated the level of performance of the hospitals in the survey.
The techniques developed in the programme provided a platform for auditing activities, allowing a more thorough examination of the underlying problems associated with such alarms, such as policy, management, training and AFD system maintenance.
Ancillary studies were also carried out to identify ageing effects on detection capability and the reliability of AFD systems in detecting a genuine fire: using a ‘block diagrams’ approach.
A significant proportion of alarms occur in hospitals, if the Automatic Fire Detection (AFD) system fails to operate correctly and causes a false alarm, or there is an environmental effect, which activates the alarm; such as cooking, steam, dust or insects. Unnecessary evacuation can be difficult for non-ambulant hospital patients.
Previous research programmes identified types and number of false and unwanted alarms in hospitals, and strategies for alleviating alarms, resulting in the setting of standards and targets, however without a clear scientific or statistical basis. The current programme involves a statistical technique to identify nationally under-performing hospitals, and a structure to promote best practice, resulting in a more informed basis for developing targets.
The research programme began with case studies to identify the issues associated with false and unwanted alarms in NHS hospitals, management, operation and maintenance of AFD systems. Then, a survey of such alarms in hospitals was carried out on a national basis. This was followed by a larger, more comprehensive survey of English NHS hospitals, gathering data directly from the relevant NHS trusts. The results comprised of a set of performance indicators – called Acceptability Factors, which indicated the level of performance of the hospitals in the survey.
The techniques developed in the programme provided a platform for auditing activities, allowing a more thorough examination of the underlying problems associated with such alarms, such as policy, management, training and AFD system maintenance.
Ancillary studies were also carried out to identify ageing effects on detection capability and the reliability of AFD systems in detecting a genuine fire: using a ‘block diagrams’ approach.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 19 May 2010 |
| Externally published | Yes |