With the Health Minister Simon Burns saying it was the Government’s “ambition” to “unleash a revolution of information throughout the NHS” last week, many new IT contract jobs will hopefully be created.
Burns was speaking following the presentation of a report showing that better use of information in England’s hospitals could help save 16,000 people a year.
Systems already being used successfully at University Hospital in Birmingham include a computer reminding staff to give patients their drugs. It’s just one of several commercially available to the NHS.
The system at University Hospital Birmingham also issues warnings to prevent patients being prescribed potentially dangerous medication and records missed medication, falls, blood-clot checks and infection control, the BBC reported.
It generates alarms when nurses punch in information that could be a concern, such as changes to a patient's temperature, heart rate, or blood pressure. This triggers an alert in the critical care Unit. An outreach team will then be dispatched to wherever they are needed.
Senior executives receive real-time feedback allowing them to call staff to account for mistakes.
According to the report, presented at a public hearing into the Mid Staffordshire NHS scandal, University Hospital Birmingham experienced a 17 per cent drop in deaths among emergency patients over 12 months, which they have linked to the system’s use.
The number of medication errors at the trust also halved, the report found.
Helen Gyves from the critical care unit at the Birmingham trust's Queen Elizabeth hospital said that nurses realised that stringent clinical security was vital.
"All of the ITU nurses work in a hi-tech environment so they are used to the impact of IT,” she said.
“So if you asked us why we hadn't done something or if you can give us evidence to prove that by challenging us things will improve for the patient, then we wouldn't mind."
Katherine Murphy, the chief executive of the Patients Association, praised the trust’s work.
The system was “"an excellent example of how the NHS can harness information to improve patient care", Burns said.
"Our ambition is to unleash a revolution of information throughout the NHS, so that everyone benefits from a modern, responsive service,” he said.
IT infrastructure for hospitals is a growing area, positively affecting IT recruitment at a time of high UK unemployment.
IT jobs in the UK are growing at a rapid rate, with one IT solutions provider saying that their company had grown by more than 30 per cent in the last year because of the need for proper infrastructure.