By wearing a bar-coded wristband, patients’ identities can be verified at any time using a bar code reader, and this can provide an extra check that the right patient is about to received the right care.
At present, errors, many of which are caused by getting patient identity wrong, cost the National Health Service (NHS) around GBP2 billion in extra bed days. Auto-identification could make a significant impact on this cost.
On a visit to a safe surgery site at Birmingham Heartlands NHS Trust, where he also launched a strategy document on using auto-identification and data capture (AIDC) technologies, Lord Hunt said: Auto-identification is not a new technology – we’ve all been used to bar codes in supermarkets for years. But to reap the benefits in healthcare, everyone needs to work to agreed standards. We are recommending that both industry and the NHS should use the GS1 System for coding.
A strategy document, named ‘Coding for success – simple technology for safer patient care,’ launched by Lord Hunt is expected to encourage further use of product coding on a voluntary basis within industry and sets out a program of action that will facilitate change both in the NHS and industry on a voluntary basis.
