A project supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre has been nominated for a leading patient safety award.
The Real-Time Blood Transfusion Data and Decision Support project has been nominated in the Technology and IT to Improve Patient Safety category for the Patient Safety Awards 2015, organised by the Health Service Journal and the Nursing Times.
The national Patient Safety Awards, in their seventh year, are to recognise and reward outstanding practice within the NHS and independent healthcare.
The project developed a process as part of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust electronic patient record (EPR) system to provide the most recent blood count results and transfusion guidance to clinicians when ordering blood and to alert them to inappropriate orders.
The implementation of this rules-based blood ordering guidance has contributed toward a saving of around £500,000 in blood costs for the Trust in 2014/15.
The project has been fully integrated with the Trust’s electronic transfusion process which uses barcode patient identification and handheld computers at the bedside to prompt staff through every step and verify the correct blood is transfused. The entire transfusion process at the OUH is now paperless, which is a first for the UK.
The project’s nomination category means it showed innovation, relevance, results, education and demonstration of ways in which technology has improved the safety of patients.
Winners of the Patient Safety Awards will be announced at the awards ceremony in Birmingham on July 6.