A patient care system comprising: at least one medical pump, each medical pump adapted to generate a data message containing a unit of information regarding pump therapy status data, pump status data, or both pump therapy status data and pump status data; an alarm generating system adapted to receive the data message from the medical pump, wherein, when the data message meets a condition established by a first algorithm, the alarm generating system is adapted to: produce an alarm message; and assess the data message according to a second algorithm to suppress an escalated alarm according to a suppression protocol, wherein the suppression protocol suppresses the escalated alarm until either a set time has elapsed or an alarm forwarding confirmation or acknowledgement was received, or another suppression protocol suppresses the escalated alarm being forwarded to a remote supervisor until either a set time has elapsed or a primary care giver cleared an alarm locally at the medical pump, wherein the escalated alarm is an audible alarm at the medical pump, wherein one of said suppression protocols is selected based on the unit of information in the data message and the alarm message; a dispatching system connected to the alarm generating system, the dispatching system adapted to forward the alarm message to an alarm destination according to a third algorithm; and an alarm destination connected to the dispatching system, the alarm destination is adapted to express an alarm upon receipt by the alarm destination of the alarm message; wherein the unit of information is a required input for both the first and second algorithms. at least one medical pump, each medical pump adapted to generate a data message containing a unit of information regarding pump therapy status data, pump status data, or both pump therapy status data and pump status data; an alarm generating system adapted to receive the data message from the medical pump, wherein, when the data message meets a condition established by a first algorithm, the alarm generating system is adapted to: produce an alarm message; and assess the data message according to a second algorithm to suppress an escalated alarm according to a suppression protocol, wherein the suppression protocol suppresses the escalated alarm until either a set time has elapsed or an alarm forwarding confirmation or acknowledgement was received, or another suppression protocol suppresses the escalated alarm being forwarded to a remote supervisor until either a set time has elapsed or a primary care giver cleared an alarm locally at the medical pump, wherein the escalated alarm is an audible alarm at the medical pump, wherein one of said suppression protocols is selected based on the unit of information in the data message and the alarm message; produce an alarm message; and assess the data message according to a second algorithm to suppress an escalated alarm according to a suppression protocol, wherein the suppression protocol suppresses the escalated alarm until either a set time has elapsed or an alarm forwarding confirmation or acknowledgement was received, or another suppression protocol suppresses the escalated alarm being forwarded to a remote supervisor until either a set time has elapsed or a primary care giver cleared an alarm locally at the medical pump, wherein the escalated alarm is an audible alarm at the medical pump, wherein one of said suppression protocols is selected based on the unit of information in the data message and the alarm message; a dispatching system connected to the alarm generating system, the dispatching system adapted to forward the alarm message to an alarm destination according to a third algorithm; and an alarm destination connected to the dispatching system, the alarm destination is adapted to express an alarm upon receipt by the alarm destination of the alarm message; wherein the unit of information is a required input for both the first and second algorithms. <EOS>