NHS Lothian has become the first NHS board in Scotland to implement “Point of Care” scanning as part of the National Scan for Safety (SfS) Programme.    

In this first phase of the programme, the national SfS programme team, alongside Genesis system solution provider, is working with Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh teams across e-Health, procurement, and the Interventional Radiology team to roll out this patient safety initiative – one that also, happily reaps a number of efficiency benefits for NHS Lothian. Some of which are already being realised.

Within the initial pilot week, 37 procedures took place across three labs within the Interventional Radiology department. The ease of scanning across the theatre environment, highlighted early but valuable benefits. These included:

• Time-saving automation of stock processes (supporting incoming and outgoing stock)
• Improved data integrity
• Improved management information.

Andrew Marchant, SRO for the Scan for Safety Programme within NHS Lothian, reflects on the early benefits. “I think that Scan for Safety is a really positive development for us and its great to already see some benefits in these very early stages. We plan that future developments will integrate with the Electronic Health Record and other systems within NHS Lothian – optimising the availability of information about patients devices, and making device recalls easier, faster, and safer.”

Jamie Hetherington is NHS Lothian’s Diagnostics General Manager within Interventional Radiology. He comments, “On average, our Radiology theatres currently conduct over 1800 procedures per year, carrying out 133 different kinds of procedures. When we were working to get ready to implement ‘Scan for Safety – Point of Care’ – our teams mapped out new processes and recorded over 1200 products in the new system. It’s been an incredible level of work but an investment we know will reap rewards for all involved.” 

Lindsay Robertson is Scan for Safety’s National Implementation Lead, adds, “It was the joint vision and commitment to improving patient safety, that has really underpinned all efforts. Working collaboratively across NHS Lothian, Genesis and the national programme, helped ensure that each part of the ‘scanning’ point of care journey worked well. It was in everyone’s interest to minimise any errors that could distract from the importance and focus of what is happening in a theatre.

She continues, “We’ve been proud to work alongside NHS Lothian colleagues and Genesis Automation, to get to this point and look forward to further roll outs nationally in due course.”