One of the most important factors that directly affects the quality of health care is patient safety. Minimize the occurrence of adverse events is one of the main challenges for health professionals. This requires continuous tracking of the patient by different areas and services, a process known as traceability and proper patient identification and medication prescribed. This article presents an information system for patient tracking and drugs developed for the Emergency Department of Hospital A Coruña. The systems use RFID technology to perform various tasks: (1) locate patients in different areas; (2) measure patient care times and waiting times; (3) identify unitary doses of medication; and (4) ensure the correct matching between the patient and the medication prescribed by the doctor. The hardware infrastructure as well as the optimal configuration of devices interconnected via a wireless network was determined by conducting a detailed coverage study. To support all the functionality needed, specific tools were designed and integrated with proprietary software applications. The RFID system was evaluated positively by staff from different professional profiles involved in its development or subsequent implementation.

At present, one of the primary concerns of healthcare professionals is how to increase the safety and quality of the care that patients receive during their stay in hospital. This is particularly important in the administration of expensive and high-risk medicines with which it is fundamental to minimize the possibility of adverse events in the process of prescription-validation-preparation/dosage-dispensation-administration of intravenous mixes. This work is a detailed analysis of the evaluation, carried out by the health personnel involved in the Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) system developed in the Day Hospital and Pharmacy services of the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña (CHUAC). The RFID system is evaluated by analyzing surveys completed by said health personnel, since their questions represent the key indicators of the patient care process (safety, cost, adequacy with the clinical practice). This work allows us to conclude, among other things, that the system tracks the patients satisfactorily and that its cost, though high, is justified in the context of the project context (use of dangerous and costly medication).

This work presents the integration of the RFID technology with the aim of ensuring the traceability of patients and minimization of adverse events during the process of prescription-validation-elaboration-dispensation-administration of medication by means of the implementation of various passive and active WIFI RFID systems in the Pharmacy and Day Hospital services of the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña. Obtaining patient traceability and using the patient/drug binomial during this process allows us to minimize the occurrence of adverse events. The key points in this work are the unmistakably unique identification and accurate real time location of the controlled items (patients and medication). RFID technology has proved to be invaluable in assisting with the everyday clinical practice of a hospital, and has been successfully implemented in this environment and others. In services such as the day hospital, the implementation of said technology is further justified by the high costs of the service and the high risk to the patient.

One of the principal objectives of hospitals is to increase the quality of care of the patient. This is even more of a priority in Day Hospitals where certain medication requires special attention, from its preparation in the Pharmacy service to its delivery to the patient in the Day Hospital. In the case of expensive medicines, nursing staff have to comply with very detailed instructions in their administration to the patient (name of medicine, route, dosage, schedule, previous medication, conditions of conservation, etc.). This work focuses on the development of a multi-faceted hub application to facilitate the traceability of mixed intravenous medication from the beginning to the end of the process of prescription–validation–dosing–preparation–administration (PVD-PA) and be available to all health professionals involved: doctors, pharmacists, and the nursing staff of the Hospital Pharmacy and Day Hospital.

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