Nurses say technology can cut lost time

Finding missing equipment and misplaced patient records is costing the NHS an estimated £1 billion a year in wasted nurses’ time.

Better use of tracking technologies and electronic records have been identified by nurses as having the potential to cut waste and improve patient safety.

The UK’s 400,000 secondary care nurses are spending almost four hours each week searching for medication, patient records and medical devices according to the survey by GS1 UK, in conjunction with the Nursing Standard.

A quarter of the 861 hospital nurses surveyed said that patient records and lab results go missing at least once a day.

Only 10% of the nurses who responded said they have the time to check patient records thoroughly all the time.

Nearly a third (31%) believed that the use of physical patient records, instead of electronic systems, are responsible for causing problems with patient care.

Nurses said better use of tracking technology could help reduce patient safety incidents – 44% of nurses feltl that bar-coded wristbands would reduce patient safety incidents by over 50%.

Only 12% of respondents currently use such technology to help them locate items on the ward.

The top missing items were consumables – such as dressings – medicines, medical devices – such as IV drips – hard copies of patient records, and assistive devices – such as wheelchairs.

The top technologies wanted by nurses included real time view of stock levels, electronic records, systems to track equipment, and bar-coded wristbands to accurately identify patients.

Gary Lynch, chief executive of GS1 UK, said: “Despite political caution about committing to cutting funding to the NHS, it is generally accepted that services will, at least, face a freeze on spending increases over the next few years. Optimising hospital ward efficiency is therefore absolutely paramount.”

Lynch added: “With all the pressure nurses are under to deliver quality care, it’s sad to see that hunting for missing equipment is wasting so much of their time, especially when they are having to look for even basic care provisions such as bed linen and feed drips.”

Graham Scott, editor of Nursing Standard, said: “This survey clearly demonstrates that simple changes to the way wards are organised can have a major impact on the ability of nurses to provide high quality patient care.

"It is alarming that one in four nurses admit they rarely have enough time to check patients’ records thoroughly before treating them.”

"There are plenty of hospitals that have successfully streamlined their systems, and it is vital that the others now follow suit so that nurses do not continue wasting valuable time searching for equipment and supplies.’

Links: GS1 UK 

Nursing Standard