Heartlands Hospital Pioneers Radio Frequency Tagging For Positive Patient Identification

In 2004/5 alone, the UK’s NHS (National Health Service) faced over £400 million worth of clinical negligence claims. One of the key causes being patient misidentification. The National Patient Safety Agency states this causes 19% of all hospital errors.

UK Government estimates that errors associated with mistaken identity costs the NHS approximately £2 billion in extra bed days. Similarly, the NHS continues to come under attack for inefficiency. Despite this, many hospitals have been unable to improve accountability with any significant results. Operation delays are one of patients’ top complaints. Currently there is an estimated 80 minutes per day wasted due to slowness in getting patients to theatre on time.

The Birmingham Heartlands Hospital is part of The Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust. It is one of the largest in England serving half a million people and caring for 574,000 patients a year. In this busy hospital environment information accuracy is essential for providing the best possible patient care. Determined to reduce errors and improve efficiency, The Birmingham Heartlands Hospital needed to develop a new system for managing patient identification through the operation process.

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