Patent ID: 8203438

Claim:
A monitor having a sensor configured to attach to a person so as to transmit optical radiation into a tissue site and generate a sensor signal responsive to the optical radiation after attenuation by pulsatile blood flow within the tissue site, the monitor configured to measure and display a plurality of physiological parameters responsive to the sensor signal and to generate alarms when those parameter measurements are outside of the predetermined limits, the monitor having an alarm suspend system for silencing the alarms, the alarm suspend system comprising: an alarm trigger responsive to any of a plurality of parameters and to predetermined limits corresponding to the parameters; the parameters partitioned into a plurality of fast treatment parameters and a plurality of slow treatment parameters according to the relative length of time it takes for a person to respond to medical treatment for a parameter measurement outside of the predetermined limits; an audible alarm responsive to the alarm trigger; an alarm silence button actuated so as to suspend the audible alarm; a timer for timing the duration of the suspended alarm; the timer initiated by actuation of the alarm silence button; the time retriggering the audible alarm after the timed duration has lapsed; a long duration suspend time associated with the slow treatment parameters; and a short duration suspend time associated with the fast treatment parameters.