U.K.

Surgery Ward Tags Patients, Tracks

Operations
Heartlands Hospital's ENT surgery unit uses an RFID system allowing it to
perform more surgeries and reduce the potential for errors.
By Jonathan Collins 

Aug. 10, 2006—Since November 2004, the ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery unit
at Heartlands Hospital, in Birmingham, England, has used radio frequency identification to
identify and track more than 1,000 day-surgery patients. Such patients wear wristbands with
embedded passive 13.56 MHz RFID tags, while interrogators identify and track their location
from the moment they check in until the minute they check out. A patient information
management system links each person's electronic case notes with the unique ID on the RFID
tag. 

The pilot has been so successful that the hospital has taken steps toward expanding the RFID-
based patient surgery tracking system throughout the entire ward, and for surgical patients who
stay overnight. In February, the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust—the local health
authority with responsibility for the hospital—published a call for bids from systems integrators
and RFID systems vendors to expand its RFID system to include a total of four wards, three
pre-operative/anesthetic rooms, three surgical theaters and two recovery rooms each with its
own RFID-enabled PC terminal, as well as 17 PDAs for staff members. A decision regarding the
bids is expected within the next few weeks. 

Prior to the current RFID system, the patients in the day-surgery ward had utilized wristbands
providing only printed data. The printed information, however, sometimes became illegible and
was not always checked by the staff during the treatment process. The RFID system uses
passive 13.56 MHz RFID chips embedded into patient wristbands made by Precision Dynamics
Corp. (PDC). Eachchip has 1 kilobyte of memory and is encoded with the patient's name, date
of birth, unique ID number and other details. The same data, along with a bar code, is printed on
the wrist strap to beread directly by staff. 

The addition of RFID tags to the wristbands ensures that staff members can read and access
their data. The staff then verifies that the encoded data matches the information stored on a PC
or handheld PDA. This helps make certain that the correct steps are being taken in the
processing of a patient through surgical care. 

As a patient moves through to surgery, the surgery nurse, the anesthetist and the surgeon all
use handheld PDAs equipped with RFID interrogators to identify that person positively. The
PDAs also display a checklist of procedures that must be carried out before that specific patient
can progress through to the next stage of the surgical process. The PDAs operate using a
wireless network deployed through the RFID trial area as part of the project. 

The trial system was developed by Intelligent Medical Systems, a company formed by David
Morgan, one of the hospital's consultant surgeons and the scheme's originator. That company,
since renamed Safe Surgery Systems, is among the firms bidding to expand the hospital's
current RFID deployment. 

According to the company, Heartlands' RFID system eliminates the potential for patient
misidentification and the serious problems that can result. In the late 1990s, for example, a
change in the order in which the hospital's patients were taken into surgery was not properly
recorded, causing doctors to operate on a patient's healthy ear by mistake. According to
research from the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), approximately 10 percent of inpatient
episodes result in errors, about half of which are preventable. A lack of bedside checks and a
high rate of missing wristbands are both cited as major contributing factors. 

The RFID system also provides Heartlands with a way to improve its efficiency. Because
patients' movements are tracked and time-stamped during their stay, the hospital has been able
to use that information to work more efficiently. In addition, patient IDs can be positively
identified and immediately linked to their case notes, enabling greater flexibility in the order in
which patients are brought to surgery. If a scheduled patient is not yet ready for surgery, for
example, the next available person can be moved into surgery without fear that the surgical
team might mistake that patient for the one being replaced. 

"RFID has increased efficiency [at the hospital] to enable one more patient operation a day,"
says Jeremy Turberville, head of sales and marketing at Safe Surgery Systems. "Hospitals in
the NHS are paid by results, so that means more funding." 

The ENT staff uses handheld interrogators to scan the wristbands each time a patient moves
from one stage or room to the next—from pre-op to surgery to recovery and back to the day-
surgery ward. The interrogators communicate with PCs located within each location. The
networked PCs use an application that manages patient data, such as unique numbers stored
on the RFID chips, enabling nurses to validate the patient's identity by matching the data on the
tag with the data in the file. This includes a photo taken when the patient arrived at the hospital.
According to Safe Surgery Systems, the wristbands cost £1 ($1.90) each and are intended only
for single use. 
Ralph Renz S. Andaya
BSN 3 Nigthingale

Reaction:

From the moment that I saw this article I said in my mind wow and saying is it possible in
the Philippines to have that kind of high tech I.D band. It validates the patient’s identity. It
checks the patient from where it will be transferred. It is amazing because they have invented
that gadget it helps a lot most especially in medical field as we all know it is very difficult to
identify patients especially when looking for their records. It’s like when you’re in a grocery store
if you have the bar code you can get the price of the product faster. I guess the nurses in that
country has no difficulty in recognizing their clients. Although according to a research 10 percent
of it has an error but still it’s preventable. It will really help the nurses in properly identifying the
patient because it has all of the information’s about the patient most especially the patients
picture, age, diagnosis, medications and others.

Technology really helps every people in the world do their works faster. But I think if
advancement in the medical field would minimize the nurse-physician-patient relationship
interaction should be maintained among the three of them. We should remember that
communication is where we interact and share thoughts and feelings. But still I’m hoping that
someday Philippines would have that kind of gadget would help us compete with the other
country not only in the economy but also in the field of science and medicine.
Articles about Surgery
Ward

Drug Study
Duty Report

Group 1
Andaya, Ralph Renz
Bagamasbad, Mary Joy
Bentijaba, Mark Christian
Briones, Merideth
Canlas, Elaine Joy
Castañas, Arvic Fritz
Cruz, Dawn Molly
Cruz, Mylah
Cuecaco, Renalyn
Custodio, Chelsea Rose

3 Nightingale
Clinical Instructor:
 Restilito Arboleda
July 26, 2010

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