Connecting to patient monitoring systems provides a supplemental means of communicating alerts raised by the monitors to nursing staff equipped with wireless phones.  When a patient vital sign (e.g. heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen level, etc.) falls out of desired range, an alarm is raised by the attached patient monitor.  The patient monitor sends alarm information to trigger an alert broadcast application to:

• place a call to appropriate mobile phone(s) showing the source alarm and the vital sign that caused the alarm
• play audible messages asking the clinician to either acknowledge or decline the call

If the phone is busy on another call, clinicians can be given an intrusion message and directed to accept the new call.  Otherwise, if the called clinician is busy, doesn't answer or declines the call, it is directed to another clinician(s).  If no clinician accepts the call, an escalation notification can be sent to a supervisor.