Wireless Blood Glucose Monitoring System Helps to Improve Patient Care

Roche is pleased to announce that the Accu-Chek® Inform II blood glucose monitoring system, the world’s first connected hospital blood glucose meter with wireless capability, is now available to hospitals within the UK and Ireland. Based on proven and reliable diagnostic technology, the Accu-Chek® Inform II system has several connectivity options to ensure rapid transmission of patient results and quality control data, via cobas® IT1000 data management software, onto the hospital information system (HIS).

The first site to adopt the Accu-Chek® Inform II blood glucose monitoring system with full wireless connectivity is Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport. With Accu-Chek® Inform II meters located in every ward and department within the hospital, the wireless connectivity has enabled Point of Care Coordinator, Samantha Ekin, to monitor the performance of all 90 meters in real time on a daily basis.

“The Accu-Chek® Inform II connected blood glucose meters enable daily quality control (QC) results to be captured electronically,” explains Samantha Ekin. “This allows the performance of all 90 meters within the hospital to be easily viewed and monitored via a single screen in the laboratory, whenever it is required. Before the installation of the fully connected system, the performance of an individual meter could only be monitored by direct ward audit or via the bi-monthly EQA, which was extremely time consuming and only accurate at the time of the audit or testing.”

With results captured and transmitted immediately to the HIS via the cobas® IT1000 POC data management software, the Accu-Chek® Inform II system eliminates the possibility of transcription errors and allows authorised medical staff to have instant access to a complete patient record.
“Wherever the patient has been tested within the hospital, their blood glucose results are now available to authorised members of the medical/nursing team, without having to refer to hand written notes,” continues Samantha Ekin. “This new streamlined approach has improved workflow and ensures that the medical team is fully informed. This, in turn, ensures that patients receive the most appropriate care at the right time.”

The wireless capability of the Accu-Chek® Inform II system combined with the data management functionality of cobas® IT1000 also ensures real time verification of patient and operator identity at the bedside, which further improves patient care and safety.

With savings in workflow, in addition to improved patient experience and safety, wireless patient monitoring in the healthcare industry is expected to grow at a steady rate in the future.