East Anglia trusts invest in blood tracking

Three NHS trusts in East Anglia have invested in blood tracking technology from Olympus.

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals and James Paget University Hospitals NHS foundation trusts and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Trust will install Olympus BloodTrack Courier on all blood issue fridges.

They will also deploy SafeTx PDA/scanners onto wards. In addition, the Queen Elizabeth and James Paget hospitals will use Auto Positive Patient Identification wristband printing on wards.

The Olympus BloodTrack suite uses bar-coding to control and track the movement of blood products into and out of blood issue fridges. The SafeTx PDA ensures that the right blood is given to the right patient.

The Auto PPI system gives patients a unique, indelible eye and machine readable wristband with a 2D bar-code that integrates with the other products.

Together, they reduce the chance of patients suffering a transfusion problem caused by human error. Barry Hunt, head of haematology and blood transfusion at the James Paget trust said they would also help it to comply with current blood safety and quality regulations.

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