A centralized monitoring unit (CMU) receiving patient monitoring data from multiple patient monitoring devices includes at least two monitoring technician stations and an assignment management module. Each monitoring technician station is configured to present alarms for each patient in the group of patients to a CMU technician. The assignment management module is executable by a processing system to calculate a load index for each monitoring technician station based on alarms for patients in the group of patients. The load index for each monitoring technician station is calculated based on at least one of a number of alarms, an alarm type of each alarm, a severity of each alarm, and a duration of continuous alarming at the monitoring technician station. Assignment of the multiple patients amongst the at least two monitoring technician stations is then distributed based on the load indexes.