Technology Solutions
from Chipside
Mobility, printing and media solutions are being used to improve safety, comfort and efficiency at every stage of a patient’s hospital journey. Bar codes, and more recently RFID (radio frequency identification) are being used to help reduce identification mistakes as well as to speed up hospital processes from admission to discharge, from the pharmacy to the wards.
Patient identification using wristband media and printers provides a critical first step in many patient-safety-improvement initiatives. Incorporating a bar code or an RFID tag as well as text provides a vital extra safeguard against mistaken identity.
Medical records that carry a printed label incorporating a bar code are a more reliable way of ensuring that each patient’s record can be uniquely identified and tracked.
Laboratory specimens need to be accurately identified. Printers are a convenient way of producing the labels at the patient’s bedside, at the nurses’ station or in the laboratory.
Medication administration can be both time-consuming and risky. With a mobile printer the pharmacist can label a patient’s personal medication on the hospital floor which saves time walking back to the pharmacy. The hospital pharmacy can also print unit-of-use bar code labels to provide a full audit trail.
Blood transfusions are a high risk-area, where inaccurate identification can lead to potentially fatal errors. Blood bags are routinely bar-coded with their type. Adding a label with the intended patient’s details enables additional safety checks to be made automatically before the blood is given.
Typical healthcare applications:
Over the 12-month period February 2006 to January 2007, the UK National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) received 24,382 reports of patients being mismatched to their care.
It is estimated that more than 2,900 of these relate to wristbands and their use. (Source: NPSA Safe Practice Notes No. 27, July 07)
A range of desktop printers and wristband media provide an effective solution for improved patient safety. Wristbands are available in adult, child and neonatal sizes and solid red allergy bands. Five additional colour options are available on request. Printed wristbands can contact text, bar codes and even digital images so that all necessary details including blood type, allergies and primary physician are immediately visible.
When a bar-coded patient identification system is introduced into the hospital, not only does it reduce errors and the associated costs of correcting them (including potential litigation costs) but it also brings many other advantages. By moving to an automated data-entry and verification system, many administration tasks are speeded up and simplified so that staff can spend more time with the patients and less time dealing with paperwork. Such systems also improve overall visibility by providing real-time information on specimens, tests and results.
The availability of versatile mobile and wireless computers, printers and networks has enabled the redesign of many applications. The growth in the implementation of wireless networks and use of mobile hospital workstations has led to safer working practices and radically boosted staff efficiency.
Mobile printers for pharmacy staff or phlebotomists enable bar code labels to be printed on demand at the point of care – saving time. By printing the label at the patient’s bedside, the risk of error is greatly reduced and it’s quicker to deliver the medication or identify the sample.
For more information, contact Help@chipside.