successful pilot project at aberdeen royal infirmary could be applied across scotland
Bed-by-bed monitoring of superbugs urged for hospitals
Published:
New software to monitor infection rates on a bed-by-bed basis in Scotland’s hospitals could be the latest move to fight the “growing scourge” of hospital-acquired illnesses.
An electronic bed management scheme which tracks infections like the potentially-fatal Clostridium difficile, otherwise known as C diff, could be rolled out across the country after a successful pilot project in Aberdeen.
Conservative MSPs have launched a campaign to have the system operating in all Scottish hospitals.
The scheme – piloted in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary – tracks the patient history of each hospital bed.
Additional software can monitor the infection rates of a bed and each time it has been deep-cleaned.
The Conservatives’ spokesman at Holyrood on public health, Jackson Carlaw, said: “The impact of twinning this (pilot) with the infection history software and rolling out across Scotland is obvious.”
“The current labour intensive and inconsistently administered paper-based system makes it difficult to track patient movement, infection trends and cleaning.”
Infection data is currently published on a health board-wide basis.
“This allows problem hospitals and wards to slip under the radar for too long, which can have disastrous consequences,” said the MSP.
“We have long argued that we must begin to monitor the situation on a hospital-by-hospital, ward-by-ward or even bed-by-bed basis.
“An electronic bed management system is a tried and tested method of turning this aspiration into a reality.”
NHS Grampian is considering widening the scheme to all hospitals in Grampian, according to Mr Carlaw.
Assistant general manager at ARI, Adam Coldwells, said: “Like all hospitals, at certain times we have pressure on bed capacity and we want to make sure we’re making absolutely the best use of our resources.
“This system gives us up-to-the-minute information at our fingertips.”
Mr Carlaw is urging Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon to run pilot schemes of the combined technology in hospitals across the country.
A government taskforce is examining ways to monitor outbreaks of infections in hospitals and will report to Ms Sturgeon “in due course”, a spokeswoman said.
