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Alert fatigue — USMLE Step 3 MCQ

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HardEthics, Patient Safety, Quality Improvement, Systems-Based PracticeAlert fatigueUSMLE Step 3

A new sepsis alert is highly sensitive but poorly specific. Nurses receive many false alerts and increasingly miss later actionable alerts. What phenomenon best explains this?

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Correct answer: E — Alert fatigue from low positive predictive value

Frequent low-value alerts create alert fatigue, reducing response to subsequent clinically important alerts. High sensitivity does not offset the safety cost of persistently poor specificity and weak workflow design.

Reference: AHRQ, Patient Safety Primer: Medication Errors: https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/medication-errors