Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust rolls out pioneering Olympus osYris wireless blood tracking system across all four of its Oxfordshire hospitals

OLYMPUSUK today announced that Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust is introducing a jointly developed innovative system for tracking patient blood across all its hospitals. Based on wireless technology and barcoding, the Olympus osYris BloodTrack system represents a positive approach to the UK Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005.

The Olympus osYris system is based on the use of handheld computers, which scan bar codes on patient wristbands. Staff can use the computers to collect test results, check blood type, and order blood supplies instantly for individual patients while at the bedside. The computers are also programmed to guide staff through best practice protocols for blood usage. The Olympus osYris system, underpinned by a hospital-wide wireless network, was first pioneered at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, and will now be implemented across all of the Trust’s four hospital sites. The Trust is amongst the first in the country to use the technology to track donated blood. Pilot sites have shown that the technology greatly reduces the risk of patients receiving the wrong blood. It has also been shown to cut transfusion time by 38%, and greatly reduce unnecessary blood usage.

The end-to-end electronic Olympus osYris blood tracking and transfusion management system has been developed at the John Radcliffe Hospital by Olympus, the National Blood Service and the Trust’s staff. The system optimises patient safety using hand-held computers with built in bar code readers. Staff maintain ’best practice‘ clinical protocols by in-built step-by-step software prompts, real time blood results are delivered directly to the point of care. The system also links to the blood bank to allow the automated issue and labelling of blood and ’just-in-time‘ collection. Julie Hartley-Jones, Chief Nurse for the Trust with responsibility for clinical governance said “patient safety and quality of service are paramount to the Trust: this solution not only delivers added value in both these areas, but also our pilot of the system highlights a pay-back in financial terms within 18 months. It is particularly exciting that we have worked so closely with Olympus in developing this system, which we hope will be implemented across the rest of the NHS”. The introduction of EU Blood Safety & Quality Regulations 2005 (EU Directive 2002/98/EC) means that all hospitals in the EU must now have systems in place to provide a comprehensive audit trail of blood units. With the transfusion of over two million units of blood per annum at a cost of over £400 million, Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer outlined…too much blood is used unnecessarily or inappropriately…clinical and managerial performance in this area needs to improve.” Piers Devereux, Managing Director of Olympus UK said, “Olympus has worked in partnership with the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust to develop a state of the art patient safety system and plan to implement this system with other forward thinking hospitals.”