By Andy McCue, 21 February 2006 13:55
NEWS
A Birmingham hospital is planning to tag patients with RFID chips to improve safety and ensure the correct operations are carried out on the right patients.
The Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust is spending an estimated £300,000 on a pilot of the system, which will use RFID-tagged wristbands containing a digital picture and information about the patient.
Sensors around the hospital will be able to detect the RFID chips, which will be linked to a system deployed on PCs in the wards, pre-operation rooms, theatre and recovery rooms and on PDAs that can be accessed by doctors and nurses.
The technology will be trialled on around 4,500 patients per year across five wards and three operating theatres in the thoracic and ear, nose and throat (ENT) departments at the hospital.
The latest trial follows a smaller-scale 'pre-pilot' of the RFID tracking system that began on the ENT department in November 2004.
The system aims to reduce the risk of litigation resulting from operations conducted on the wrong person due to mistaken identity or operations conducted on the right person but done on the wrong side of the body.
A spokeswoman for the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust told silicon.com: "The system will improve patient safety and operating theatre efficiency."
Comments
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1. Roger Huffadine
Madness -so- The present system of "check the tag check the notes" is being replaced by "check the PC check the PC"
Its really really worrying that somebody believes that this is a step forward.
2. Bridget Hunt
Seems strange to start the trials in ENT wards when most people have one nose and one throat, although I'll admit to two ears...
When I had breast surgery in 2004, I actually had an argument with the registrar as to which breast was going to be operated on - and he had the notes in front of him, not to mention scars from exploratory surgery clearly visible on the correct one. His boss, my surgeon, remonstrated with him in front of me for his error.