New patient safety solution for Sedgefield PCT
A new reporting system called Sentinel is helping to improve patient
safety at Sedgefield Primary Care Trust — the first NHS organisation in
the country to go live with the technology.
Since its installation in 2003, staff have been using the technology to
help identify problems that arise, including patient safety incidents and
near misses. Consequently, the PCT has been able to carefully monitor
incidents and risk trends in a more timely way than the old-fashioned
paper-based system. Problems that are highlighted can then be dealt with
quickly and efficiently, resulting in improved services and patient care.
Dr Alyson Learmouth, Director of Public Health for Sedgefield PCT,
says: “This new system makes it easier and quicker to report incidents. As
a result, we are able to learn from incidents and take action to ensure
that similar things don’t happen again. This improves patient safety.”
The PCT has been working closely with the National Patient Safety
Agency (NPSA) and, thanks to Sentinel being linked up to the National
Reporting Learning System, other NHS organisations can benefit from
learning from each reported incident. “Being connected to the national
incident reporting system allows the NPSA to collect reports from across
the country and to take action to prevent the same kind of incident
occurring again”, explains Learmouth. “The whole country can learn from
each case and patient safety throughout the NHS will be improved every
time.”
Sentinel was created by Sheffield Software house Vantage Health
Technology.
Source: bjhc&im July 2005
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