Abstract: An alarm prioritizing system for use with a medical device categorizes the alarms into high, medium and low priority alarms. With the medium and high priority alarms, there is a visual indication and a audible sound that cannot be fully muted. With certain alarms, however, the operator can, by a positive and deliberate input, de-escalate the alarm priority from a medium priority alarm to a low priority alarm where the audible sound is muted and only a visual indication is thereafter provided. There is a time delay between the time the user actually starts the de-escalation process before it is effected to enable the user to properly identify the alarm and its location on a visual display panel. As a further feature, the same visual indication shifts from a medium priority alarm location to a low priority alarm location.