Nurses want tablets on repeat prescription

A Manchester hospital has successfully trialled a new tablet PC designed specifically for use by clinicians.

Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust was the first hospital in Europe to trial the C5 mobile clinical assistant (MCA) - which was developed by Intel and Motion Computing - and was officially launched today.

Staff in the phlebotomy (blood drawing) and elderly care departments used a prototype MCA over four weeks and saw significant benefits.

The device allows clinicians to identify patients using RFID wristbands and then access records and test results or arrange referrals - all from the bedside.

By enabling staff to remotely request blood tests and access results during ward rounds, diagnosis and treatment can be carried out much more quickly and efficiently.

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Using the MCA cuts the time needed for blood test processing by half a day according to Mike Frayne, director of operations in critical care and clinical support services at the Salford Trust.

Jenny Quilliam, a staff nurse for elderly care at Salford said of using the MCA: "I was a bit sceptical at first." But, she added, after five minutes she found "it was really easy to use".

Frayne said his team now plan to look at which areas in the Trust would most benefit from the MCA before moving ahead with adopting the tech over the coming months.

Senior clinical architect at NHS Connecting for Health (CfH), Dr Mike Bainbridge, said the MCA is something the organisation is seriously looking at.

He told silicon.com CfH is looking at the implications of using the MCA on infrastructure – such as installing wi-fi networks for example – and will trial the tech in other hospitals in the coming months.