9 December 2008 – Olympus BloodTrack suite recognised in The Guardian: Public Services Awards 2008

Watford, 9 December 2008: In the recent Guardian Public Services Awards 2008, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust has won the Innovation and Progress Transformation Award. This is for developing an electronic identification procedure to ensure transfusion patients always get the correct blood, using the BloodTrack™ suite of products supplied by Olympus UK.

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals have achieved 100% correct identification of blood transfusion patients by moving from an entirely manual process to an end-to-end electronically controlled system. This uses robust software, 2D barcoding and PDAs to store, track and handle units of blood and to correctly identify patients and staff, The electronic system also allows doctors to check patients’ latest blood counts via a wireless link to the laboratory, whilst algorithms incorporated into the PDA guide the prescribing of blood based on the patient’s most recent pathology results.

Placed over 100 clinical areas across 3 hospital sites, the BloodTrack suite of products supplied by Olympus, incorporated into the hospitals transfusion procedures, offers staff real time visibility as to the location and status of each blood unit. This ensures safer blood transfusions through the controlled access to blood refrigerators, and leads nurses through the verification and transfusion process at the point of care where patients are all positively identified using barcoded wristbands.

The changes made to the transfusion processes at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals have not only increased patient safety whilst decreasing nursing time but have also led to significant cost savings across the Trust. Barbara Cripps, the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital’s project manager for the blood tracking project said, “Blood usage reduced by 11% last year, a saving of £450,000 for the Trust.”

“It’s great to receive recognition for what we believe is a wonderful system that provides numerous benefits to patients, clinicians and health service managers,” continued Barbara Cripps.

BloodTrack is powered by Neoteric Technology Ltd.

www.olympuspatientsafety.co.uk