The Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon announced that electronic bed management, which tracks infected patients, is to be used by all NHS boards in Scotland. A trial of the tracking system in Lothian, Fife, Tayside and Grampian health board areas saw a reduction in hospital-acquired infections. It will be introduced comprehensively by the end of this year, at a cost of £1.5 million.
A report carried out on the trials of the tracking system said Scotland has one of the highest rates of hospital infections in Europe. A recent forecast said around one in 10 patients admitted to an acute hospital will catch an infection.
This report sets out the results of an independent evaluation of four different pilot projects which aim to improve patient location information, infection tracking and surveillance capabilities in the acute hospital sector across NHS Scotland. The main focus of the report is to highlight lessons learnt and good practice observed across each of the pilot sites using a common evaluation framework.
All of these sites used ICNet as an infection tracking and case management tool and each one used it in a different way, depending on the individual setup in the location.
This highlights the enormous versatility of ICNet with regard to information management especially with the use of the export function which is being piloted in this environment.
More information and the original report can be found here.