DEATH rates at two large hospitals in Britain fell by more than 15 per cent after nurses started using handheld computers instead of paper charts to record patients' vital signs, according to new research. The drop in mortality represented more than 750 lives saved in a single year across the two sites, the paper in BMJ Quality & Safety found.
Nurses record patients' blood pressure, pulse, oxygen levels and other indicators on the handheld devices. Specialist software, called VitalPAC, automatically calculates if the patient is deteriorating.
If so, the nurse is warned to increase the frequency of their monitoring of the patient and, in some cases, to alert a doctor or a rapid response team.
The introduction of the new system was followed by a fall of almost 400 deaths among patients in one year at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, and a drop of more than 370 in the same period at University Hospital, Coventry, according to the research.
An accompanying editorial in the journal described the research as "an important milestone" in improving patient safety and said the lowering of mortality at these two hospitals "represents a truly dramatic improvement". The system was developed by doctors and nurses at Portsmouth working together with health improvement company The Learning Clinic. "We believed traditional paper charts were not doing the job well enough so we designed an electronic system to support staff," Dr Paul Schmidt, of Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust said. The VitalPAC software uses the information entered by the nurse to calculate a patient's Early Warning Score, which provides an indication of the severity of the patient's condition. A high EWS triggers an alert. Calculating the EWS requires time and accuracy and busy nurses using paper and pen can make mistakes. "This is a great example of a collaboration between front-line clinicians, engineers and software designers to create a system which brings clear benefits to patients and staff," Roger Killen, chief executive of The Learning Clinic, said.