Hospital aims to cut operating errors with RFID tags

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."