Patients to be bar-coded
Patients will be more easily identified under new system, government claims
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Friday, 16, Feb 2007 11:27
Hospital patients could soon be tagged with electronic barcodes in an attempt to improve efficiency and save the NHS billions of pounds.
Under the proposals patients would wear a bar-coded wristband which can be read to check the patient's identity and to ensure that they are about to receive the right treatment.
The government estimates that errors associated with mistaken identity cost the NHS about £2 billion in extra bed days.
Announcing the government's coding strategy document (Coding for Success), which hospitals can voluntarily choose to adopt, health minister Lord Hunt described patient safety as his "top priority".
"This document sets out a clear case for the use of AIDC [auto-identification and data capture] technology by industry and the NHS in order to save lives, reduce mistakes and improve efficiency," he said.
Guidance has been published for hospital trusts today to assist them in adopting AIDC if they choose to do so.
Birmingham Heartlands hospital has been using a radio frequency identification (RFID) wristband tagging system in the day surgery unit for the last two years.
Commenting on how it has changed work at the hospital, David Morgan, consultant surgeon at Heart of England NHS Trust, said: "We have not had a single mistake whilst using the system.
"The theatres run more efficiently because there is less hanging around waiting for patients - this means we can operate on at least one extra patient per session."
Mike Kreuzer, technical and regulatory director of the Association of British Healthcare Industries, welcomed the coding strategy.
"Hopefully this will lead to EU-wide and, eventually, global standardisation of coding systems for medical devices in the best interests of patient safety," he said.