BLOOD MANAGEMENT
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ISB barcoded P
Franck Riout of Zebra Technologies Europe outlines the evidence that barcode wristbands aid patient safety and patient care.
atient safety is an ongoing issue for the UK healthcare profession, which requires
consistent reviews for improvements. Indeed, Scotland has recently extended a specialised nationwide patient safety programme until 2015, which aims to ensure 95% of patients are not exposed to any risks.1
for
another patient or given the wrong dosage of drugs. The list of possible errors is endless.
The NHS has
highlighted patient safety as a priority, and with the approval of the Information Standards Board
Health and Social Care (ISB)
barcoded wristband standard last year it still remains at the top of the news agenda.
Barcodes add an additional level of security, and allow for the ease of tracking drug use and blood specimens, as well as the level of treatment a patient receives. The data will help trusts make better decisions and efficiencies in terms of staffing, budgetary spend and stock inventory. It can also help streamline processes and ultimately boosts patient safety.
From April this year, NHS trusts must already have plans in place to meet this new regulation and by October 2013 each trust is expected to have fully implemented the technology. However, in a recent statement from an AIDC project manager at NHS Connecting for Health, it has been estimated that only two-thirds of these trusts are compliant with the standard.2
The National Patient Safety Agency has always advocated the use of barcoding by stating in the report ‘Right Patient, Right Care’ that it is “currently the best technology for labelling patients and specimens because the technology is readily available, relatively cheap and has a good track record in healthcare”.3
The use of barcode wristbands has already proven to reduce drug administrative errors by almost 42%, according to a study carried out in Canada and published by the New England Journal of Medicine.4
The main reason for
implementing such technology is to certify the positive identity of patients. It not only ensures patient safety, but also allows for better efficiencies and tracking within the NHS. In the past, wristbands were simply written on. This process exposes the patient to human error and increases the chances of receiving the wrong care if the wristband is illegible. This could involve failures to match the patient to blood specimens, receiving treatment meant for
62 | national health executive Jul/Aug 12
A great example of this is Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which with the help of healthcare integration company Dakota Integrated Solutions and Zebra Technologies deployed wristband solutions to comply with recent regulations. The Trust experienced a reduction in errors on patient identification and greater efficiencies across the board. The use of barcodes also helped improve efficiency in the labs, enabling staff to process blood sugar test results quickly and providing treatment for patients in a timely manner. A spokesperson from the Mid Cheshire administrative department said: “We have on average 100 admissions per day and to
wristband standard is just the start
to the rest of the world; however regulations such as the Information Standards Board for Health and Social Care standard are only the starting point for greater patient care in the future. With patient safety a top priority, trusts must remain at the forefront pushing for ways to improve this, rather than relying on governmental regulations. At the moment the two dimensional barcode’s (also known as the GS1 Data Matrix Symbol) usage has been extremely limited so far.
The challenge now is to bring this usage to the next level and see how trusts and hospitals can get the most out of the 2D barcode on the wristband.
In
addition, the challenging part of this is to have all information
systems in
place to manage all this information and link them to each other to deliver
print out the wristbands instead of handwriting each one saves us roughly an hour and a half per day meaning more time with our patients.”
Investing in new technology and monitoring systems can be an expensive cost for trusts faced with limited budget spend but there are clearly positive benefits for both the staff and patients, making this a worthwhile investment in the long term.
The UK is forward thinking when it comes to adoption of new technology when compared
more insight and value for staff and patients. As patient safety is integral to the development of future care, it will be interesting to see how trusts will bring this forward.
References
1
tinyurl.com/NHE-Zebra-1 2
tinyurl.com/NHE-Zebra-2 3
tinyurl.com/NHE-Zebra-3 (p9) 4
tinyurl.com/NHE-Zebra-4 (p1, May 2010)
FOR MORE INFORMATION
www.zebra.com
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