Patient safety relies on the normal operation of the dialysis machine. Frequent alarms caused by equipment malfunction can affect patient health. Our investigations found that up to 215 alarms were triggered per shift. Causes included: no user manual for the new dialysis machine, equipment shortages such as the arm fixer/warmer and blood vessel trend chart;nurses’ lack of caution, knowledge and skill on dialysis operations; a lack of continuing education on dialysis machine operation and no monitoring mechanism for standard dialysis procedures.The purpose of this project was to reduce the frequency of machine alarm to less than
118 per shift. Solutions included: Compiling a user manual for the dialysis machine;installing additional arm fixers/warmers and including the blood vessel trend chart on the patient’s chart; setting up an incentive scheme; as well as provide continuing education and regular monitoring of dialysis procedures. After the improvements were made the frequency of machine alarms decreased to 116 per shift. This project has been a success and provides a reference for improvements to dialysis machine alarms in other units.