This paper documents a study at three dialysis departments on the use of different alarm systems. The design of the alarm systems is to some extent in line with the visions of augmented reality and ubiquitous computing. Our study has raised a range of questions which we think are relevant for the research on how to embed technology in users' environment. We will address how the properties of the specific alarm systems, concerted in the local physical environment of the dialysis department, affords the localisation, orientation and recognition of alarms. In this paper, localisation is about the ways in which the nurses exactly locate where the alarm comes from and orientation is how the nurses orientate themselves towards the alarm in a more imprecise way. Recognition is about how the nurses notice that there is an alarm in the first place and if there are multiple alarms.