Paxar Healthcare

Patient misidentification is a widespread problem

Patient misidentification is a widely recognised problem within acute hospital trusts:

• The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) highlighted that patient misidentification is a significant risk in the National Health Service (NHS).
• Research has found that 10 percent of inpatient episodes result in errors of some kind – half of which are preventable.
• There are an estimated 850,000 patient safety incidents each year which cost the NHS approximately £2 billion in extra hospital days.
• A SHOT (the Serious Hazards of Transfusion) report found that over a five year period 61 per cent of blood transfusion incidents involved transfusion of the wrong blood.

The results of misidentification can be catastrophic and can lead to extra patient days in hospital - and even fatalities.

What causes patient misidentification?

Basic misunderstanding or miscommunication is the cause of most patient identification errors.

Different languages and dialects mean that verbal communication is not always clear and straightforward.

This, combined with communcating with people who are seriously ill, leads to confusion and misinterpretation – resulting in misidentification.

What is Paxar's healthcare software solution?

Paxar's healthcare software solution is a fully automated patient identification and blood tracking system. It combines fully automated patient identification, fridge issue management and phlebotomy labelling. It has been developed in conjunction with hospitals to resolve the problem of patient identification.

It consists of patient wrist band and phlebotomy printers, hand-held scanners and fridge management control systems - all of which are linked together using a wireless network and software that has been developed specially for the application.

The software solution can be integrated with existing hospital computer systems so patient records can be updated easily and reliably in real time.

Paxar's healthcare software solution offers

• Fully automated patient identification using encoded wristbands.
• Point of entry wristband printing.
• Failsafe bedside patient identity checks using handheld scanners.
• Full fridge issue management, product verification and event storage.
• Real time updating of patient records on existing hospital computer systems.
• Portable phlebotomy label printers for labelling at point of draw.

How does this solution stop misidentification?

Paxar's healthcare software solution uses the latest automated identification and tracking technology. It eliminates the need to identify patients manually - the biggest cause of error in patient identification.

It also enables patients to be matched reliably and automatically with their care, before a blood transfusion for example. Hospital staff are directed to a patient’s care product and validation checks ensure that the correct product has been used. Paxar's healthcare software solution will even release locks on a fridge door to control access to products. It will also update patient records on the hospital’s central computer once care has been administered.

Looks great but I don’t have a budget

Paxar can offer a customised funding package to help with the purchase. It eliminates the need for capital outlay, enabling costs to be managed through normal operating expenditure.

How can I find out more?

Please call Brian Roberts on +44 (0)7921 106160 or email healthcare@paxar.co.uk