Medical technology
Safeguarding patients across the ICS environment
With the expansion of virtual wards, what steps are being put in place to mitigate the clinical safety risks of spreading assets across multiple teams and organisations, and into the community? Steven Bruce explores the role of a hybrid asset tracking model to support efficient and safe care.
The NHS’s recent decision to expand virtual wards1
to include children’s services not only
emphasises the growing role of community- based care but also the new challenges faced by Integrated Care Systems (ICS) in managing a patient experience across multiple disparate organisations. Technology innovation plays a key role in enabling high-quality, consistent care to patients both within a physical hospital environment and in the community. With ICSs already losing millions of pounds worth of assets located within a physical Trust environment, what steps are being put in place to mitigate the clinical safety risks of spreading this expensive asset base across multiple teams and organisations, and into the community? How will an ICS manage the essential allocation, cleaning, maintenance and recovery of equipment when it is moving between care environments; or achieve essential economies of scale through more effective asset utilisation across diverse organisations?
ICS vision For innovative ICSs, the evolution towards joined- up care and joined-up information is compelling. By improving the overlap between Trusts and service providers, the ICS will be able to capture and manage an entire patient encounter. One of the benefits is that the patient’s journey through the care system will be faster and less stressful and not require them to explain their condition and concerns repeatedly. Accurate tracking of medical equipment location and status throughout the healthcare environment and the community can also help streamline the care journey and smooth out many of the problems that can frustrate clinicians and impact patient outcomes.
With a complete and accurate view of the
entire medical equipment estate, Electrical and Biomedical Engineering (EBME) teams can ensure equipment is routinely serviced and cleaned to meet compliance requirements, improving patient safety and minimising the risk of litigation. Full visibility will minimise equipment loss, improve planned preventative
maintenance and, importantly, determine opportunities to reduce duplication of equipment and achieve economies of scale across the entire ICS. While the vision is compelling, challenges remain across the ICS regarding IT maturity levels, varying priorities across teams, finance coordination and different care pathways. With many Trusts still wrestling with a lack of visibility over existing medical equipment estates, what steps need to be taken, if ICSs are to begin to move towards far more effective medical equipment management?
Cost and safety Many Trusts are still enduring a vicious cycle of equipment loss and mismanagement. There have been some instances of NHS staff, mindful of this challenge, creating their own ‘squirrel stores’ of kit, including syringe pump drivers or blood pressure monitors, simply to avoid the risk of delays and cancellations caused by a lack of seamless access to equipment. The result, unfortunately, is further delays
for other clinicians, huge amounts of under- used, even un-used, equipment and a need for EMBE teams to invest in an estimated 10% of contingency equipment – something that is hard to justify when resources are so stretched. The cost of lost equipment, with disturbing quantities ending up on popular auction sites, remains an enormous drain on NHS budgets. Furthermore, inadequate visibility over medical equipment location can compromise patient care. If assets are not returned or go missing, they are not then available for the next patient – something that could either jeopardise the level of care available for that individual or delay discharge into community care. It also creates serious concerns about patient safety. Equipment should not be used on patients if cleaning or servicing requirements have not been met – but when EBME teams have lost sight of equipment and clinicians are under enormous pressure, this is inevitable.
August 2024 I
www.clinicalservicesjournal.com 55
Sergey Ryzhov -
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