Hospital Increases it's Productivity with SATO Printers
End user: Hospital
System: Barcode Data Capture and Tracking System
Benefits: More efficient tracking of patients, treatments and medicines, increasing hospital productivity
Overview
Hospitals must be error-free and very secure. It is imperative that patients are dealt with in a timely and correct manner, given the right treatment, exact medicine with the precise dosage. Most patients also wish their medical record to be kept totally private.
A hospital in the UK was well aware of these concerns and wanted to maintain their good reputation as a first-rate hospital.
Issues
Due to an increasing number of patients the hospital was facing problems. Registration was taking too long, archiving records was time-consuming and tracking patients and care they received was more and more difficult. Hospital staff with little time relied on to handwritten records. Under time pressures of time and stress, the risk of errors was too high. The system needed critical review.
Solution: Tracking and Updating with Barcodes
A supplier of data collection systems was contacted, to put forward a barcode solution to track the patient and their treatment. The following 5 areas were the main concern:
Registration: Personal and medical history information are recorded when a new patient registers. With the new scheme, data is inputted into the hospital system and a CT 400 prints out labels with text and a barcode referring to the patient's records. This label is fixed on the patient's folder and their wristband. Scanning the labels enables the hospital to effectively recall the folder whenever a patient is readmitted.
Patient Tracking: Scanning the folder or wristband label allows doctors to quickly call up a patient's history and also record a patient's visit and treatment. However all records are password protected to ensure patients' privacy.
Samples: To prevent blood and urine sample mix-ups, whenever a sample is taken, a MB 200 prints a barcode label containing the patient's identity number and sample details. This label has a special adhesive to ensure it remains firmly affixed to the container. Previously, hand-written labels were used, which were sometimes illegible, incorrect. The new system has a 99.9% accuracy record.
Medecine Inventory: All medicines are labelled with an in-house barcode label. Like an inventory tracking system, information like suppliers' name, name of medicine, usage and expiry date are recorded. Software not only keeps track of diminishing stocks but alerts staff when drugs expire.
Pharmacy: Medicines prescribed are counter-checked by scanning the container's barcode label. The pharmacist will only dispense the medicine, if the description on the monitor fits the doctor's instructions.
Benefits
The hospital functions much more proficiently since the SATO data collection and labelling system was installed. Manual input of data has been reduced, eliminating errors and saving time. Patient records are quickly located while remaining private, medicine inventory is more efficient and staff is able to manage the new influx of patients with ease. As a result productivity has increased.
For more information on MB Series: click here for the MB20xi and click here for the MB400
For more information on CT 400 click here |
