Increasing bedside scanning implementation at Charing Cross Hospital, UK

Charing Cross Hospital implemented GS1 barcodes on their patient wristbands.

The context

At Charing Cross, positive patient identification checks were only being done 17% of the time. Issuing a barcoded wristband to every in-patient directly increased caregiver activity to positively identify patients at all points during the care process.

The use of barcodes containing a unique identifier also mean hospitals have the ability to cross reference patients and treatments.

By leveraging GS1 barcodes, Charing Cross has been able to ensure that more patients are positively identified before, during and after care.

Results

• Positive patient ID confirmation through wristband checks increased from 17% to 81%1, 2

1Lovell, Helen M.D. (2007). Coding for Success: Simple technology for safer patient care.

2Lawrence, Neil. (2008). NHS Connecting for Health, Auto Identification and Data Capture in the NHS.