As part of its drive to improve patient identification, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital has adopted the Safe Surgery System that is supplied by Safe Surgery Systems Ltd and based on technology provided by Brenmoor Ltd.
Commenting on the project, Health Minister Lord Hunt said: “The use of barcoding and RFID tagging could save the NHS millions of pounds a year. Patient safety is my top priority and this project sets out a clear case for the use of auto-identification and data capture technology to save lives and improve efficiency.”
After using the wristbands, David Morgan consultant ENT surgeon at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital said: “Since using the system staff have been able to spend more time with the patients due to less paperwork, and patient safety has greatly increased. In fact we have not had a single mistake while using the system. This will save the Trust £270,000 per year.”
The Department of Health believes that wider use of such systems could help reduce the £2 bn worth of extra bed days that result from wrongly identifying patients.
