The BBC reports “hospital patients are used to wearing wristbands. But now those bands have gone high-tech.In a scheme at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, day case surgery patients carry their personal data on electronic tags embedded into wristbands. On arrival, they have a digital photo taken and that, plus the details of the care they need, are loaded on to an electronic tag contained in a wristband they can wear throughout their stay. The tags mean any member of staff caring for that patient can read the tag details using a PDA to check they are treating the right person. They can also see what checks the patient has had, or if they are ready for surgery, to ensure they get the right drugs, tests and operations via the checklist on the PDA. Schemes such as this, which tag patients, and bar-coding drugs and hospital equipment, are being seen in a number of UK hospitals. But the Department of Health is now recommending such technology is more widely used”.

‘Tagging’ improves patient safety