NHS patients get electronic wristbands to track location
A HOSPITAL has become the first to issue all patients and staff with electronic wristbands to track their movements.
The NHS trial means every consenting patient is given a device, which is picked up by 4,000 infrared sensors at beds and doorways.
Staff in an air traffic control- style room monitor and direct doctors and nurses – wearing special lanyards with data chips – to where they are needed via handheld devices.
And other staff are similarly notified when beds become available so they can prepare them for new patients.
The measures, being piloted by the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust in Cheshire, could be introduced nationally. Initial findings show the time from a patient being discharged to their bed being ready for a new patient is now under 2.5 hours – down from four. But visitors expressed concern, saying Big Brother- style monitoring lacked the human touch.
Under the system, by TeleTracking Technologies, staff in the control room have a real-time view of bed status, which patients need to be allocated a bed, where pieces of equipment are and the nearest housekeeping staff member to clean a bed.
When a patient is discharged and their wristband deactivated, control room staff can automatically see their bed has become available. Then support services are notified via a handheld device that the bed needs changing.
The system pulls data from patients’ digital health records so it can tell doctors when they need to be checked. It also tells porters when a patient needs moving from one area to another and provides alerts when equipment such as hoists is required.
The Countess of Chester is one of four national pilot sites trialling the technology, but is the only one using the system across the entire hospital and staff. The cost of the project is currently being withheld. But officials say it aims to reduce the length of stay per
‘Lacks the human touch’
patient to free up beds. Tony Chambers, the hospital’s chief executive, said: ‘The co-ordination centre will make us more responsive.
‘Where in the past a series of phone calls might have been needed to source a piece of equipment or get an update on a patient having a scan or procedure, the co-ordination centre can provide this information at a glance.’
Yesterday some visitors at the hospital felt the wristbands were a good idea.
Pauline Canning, 65, said: ‘It’s important we get people out of their beds and new people in, so patients are not being treated in corridors or things like that. If they can make dramatic drops in turnover times then that will make the NHS more efficient.’
But Ian Dillon, 44, said: ‘I’m not entirely comfortable with being a patient or working here and being monitored Big Brother-style like that.
‘It lacks the human touch. You could feel like you are on a treatment conveyor belt.’
The Countess of Chester is a 600-bed general hospital with more than 3,000 employees.
The hospital’s medical director, Ian Harvey, said: ‘It’s important for patients that they don’t spend more time in hospital than they need to, with everything we do geared towards getting them seen by the right people first time, limiting any factors that can lengthen their stays along the way.
‘The increased transparency of the co- ordination centre will help us do this, allowing our teams to collaborate more seamlessly across A&E, wards, theatres and radiology.
‘It’s a bold change that has the potential to make things much better.’
Bernard Quinn, of NHS Improvement, the Health Service’s financial watchdog, said: ‘The Countess of Chester is leading the way to help improve patient flow and to ensure patients get the care they need, in the right place as quickly as possible.’