The Journal of mHealth Vol 2 issue 5 (Oct) | Page 19

Industry News Continued from page 15 using barcodes for the first time. This, it is claimed, will help to ensure that the right patient will be given the right drug, at the right dose and at the right time. While the NHS has a troubled record with large-scale IT projects, NHS England’s national director for patients and information, Tim Kelsey, has said that this time the organisation is in a position to deliver on its pledge. A new set of “digital standards” that healthcare providers must provide will be integrated into NHS contracts while organisations will be inspected by the Care Quality Commission to ensure that they are being implemented. The Government estimates that annual cost of paper storage is between £500,000 to £1m for each healthcare trust – money which, it says, will be invested in more doctors and nurses. “Every day, care is held up and patients are kept waiting while an army of people transport and store huge quantities of paper round our healthcare system,” Mr Kelsey will say. “This approach is past its sell-by date. We need to consign to the dustbin of history the industry in referral letters, the outdated use of fax machines and the trol- leys groaning with patients’ notes.” Innovations such as electronic prescribing systems, which help doctors ensure the right medicine is provided to the right person in the right quantity can halve medication errors, yet only 14 per cent of NHS hospital trusts currently use such systems. In addition, a study published in the British Medical Journal found that death rates at two major hospitals fell by more than 15 per cent when nurses were given handheld computers to monitor patients’ vital signs. The drop in mortality represented more than 750 lives saved in a single year across Some things just... the two sites, which could equate to tens of thousands of lives across the NHS. “As well as saving precious resources, technology can dramatically reduce errors,” Mr Kelsey says. “Urgent action is a moral imperative where paper is the currency of clinical practice.” “The NHS needs to get over the idea that we’ve had too many false starts and we can’t do technology. While bringing our own systems into the digital age, we must do more to help the public and clinicians take advantage of the game-changing opportunities on offer to improve outcomes for patients.” Source: The Independent n This could be your ad ...stand out from the crowd 40% off for all new advertisers Global Digital Health 100 The most innovative companies in the field of digital health Nominations for 2015 now open, for more information please visit www.thejournalofmhealth.com Contact [email protected] for more information