Patent ID: 8622902

Claim:
A method for controlling an alarm unit in a medical instrument or system, the medical instrument or system detecting at least one physiological parameter of the patient, the method comprising: with the medical instrument or system, consecutively detecting a present value of the physiological parameter; with a determination unit, after detecting the present value of the physiological parameter, determining an alarm delay as a function of at least one detected value of the physiological parameter wherein the function yields a shorter alarm delay if the degree by which two consecutively determined values of the physiological parameter deviate from a normal value increases, and wherein the function yields a longer alarm delay if the degree by which two consecutively determined values of the physiological parameter deviate from the normal value decreases; measuring a time the physiological parameter has exceeded or under-run at least one predefined threshold for the physiological parameter defining an upper or lower limit for a normal range of the physiological parameter, respectively; starting a limit violation counter running after a first of multiple directly consecutive events of detected present values of the physiological parameter that exceed or under-run the threshold, respectively, and wherein the value of the alarm delay is continuously updated according to the function of at least the detected value of the physiological parameter; determining the value of the limit violation counter when a detected present value of the physiological parameter has returned into a normal range, a reduction value is calculated as a function of the detected present value of the limit violation counter and/or the degree by which the detected present value of the physiological parameter exceeds or under-runs the predefined threshold, and the reduction value is decremented in time; and controlling the alarm unit to generate an alarm when the time of the physiological parameter exceeds or under-runs the predefined threshold, respectively, exceeds the alarm delay.