Patient Safety and Patient Identification

1. Patient Safety and Patient Identification Chris Ranger Partnership Development Manager (NHS Connecting for Health and Informing Healthcare)

2. Healthcare error statistics • In the UK, about 10% of inpatient episodes result in errors of some kind - from no harm to death • About half the inpatient errors are preventable • Of 8 million admissions to hospital in England each year, about 850,000 result in patient safety incidents • This costs the NHS about £2 billion in extra hospital days • Does technology have a role in minimising error? Ref: C Vincent, G Neale and M Woloshynowych (2001), Adverse Events in British Hospitals: Preliminary retrospective record review, BMJ 322:517-19

3. Patient identification errors • Patient identification is a key area in which errors occur – various estimates • Wrong patient ID results in mismatching patients with care intended for them • NPSA has a programme of work on patient ID and mismatching

4. Right patient – right care; framework for action - published December 2004 Conclusions • better manual checking and use of technologies can help prevent errors in matching patients with care • use of technologies to prevent mismatching is both desirable and achievable • RFID is potentially more powerful than barcoding but costs and acceptability are issues to be addressed

5. NPSA Safer Practice Notices on patient ID • Safer Practice Notices – 2005 and 2007 about wristband compliance and standardisation of identifiers and design • All wristbands should have the capacity to have a barcode and/or a RFID tagalongside printed details. • NPSA believes technology has a key role in matching patients with care and wants to see RFID tested out

6. Where is RFID being usedin patient identification? • Birmingham Heartlands hospital – RFID wristbands for patient ID in surgery (next presentation) • Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust – RFID and barcoding in hospital transfusion

7. Mayday Use of Barcoding and RFID • Structured national approach to use of IT in blood transfusion based on NPSA electronic clinical transfusion management system – funded by NHS CFH • Barcodes on staff ID badges/ patient wristband/ sample tube labels and compatibility labels • Passive RFID in patients’ wristbands • Active RFID for tracking blood/ blood products

8. Potential benefits • Reduction of patient safety incidents • Reduction in number of samples rejected by the pathology lab • Traceability of blood/ blood products • More effective blood management For more, see http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/systemsandservices/bloodpilot