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Asset and patient tracking project wins inaugural award

The inaugural Lord Carter Award, presented at the Hospital Innovations 2017 event in London, went to a Trust which has saved considerable sums, and greatly improved efficiencies, by using RFID tagging to ‘track’ patients, equipment, and staff.

Following a keynote conference address at April’s Hospital Innovations 2017 event in London, in which he stressed the increasing role of innovation in ensuring that the NHS can operate on a financially sustainable footing while continuing to provide first-class care, Lord Carter presented the inaugural Lord Carter Innovation Award, as well as congratulating two Highly Commended entries and a runner-up. He told delegates that a judging panel comprising 10 of IHEEM’s Past-Presidents had had an extremely difficult task to choose the eventual winner from 28 ‘really high quality’ entries.

As he returned to the stage to announce the winner of the first Lord Carter Innovation Award a few minutes after delivering a rousing keynote speech on the opening day of Hospital Innovations 2017 at Olympia, London, Lord Carter began by explaining the entry criteria. He said: “We were looking for entrants that had demonstrated innovation or innovative practices in delivering substantial savings, efficiencies, and carbon reductions to a Trust, examples of delivering operational efficiencies and savings via the introduction of innovative engineering technologies, and evidence of transformation of staff practices through the introduction of new technology or innovative working practices. All these criteria speak to the heart of what I discussed in my presentation a short time ago.”

The winner of the inaugural Lord Carter Award for Innovation was The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, one of the West Midlands’ largest acute and community healthcare providers, whose New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton has over 800 beds. The Trust, which employs over 8,000 staff, won the award in conjunction with its technology provider, TeleTracking Technologies. The Trust’s SafeHands Programme – its goal was to demonstrate how technology could support operational efficiencies in a healthcare setting while simultaneously improving patient safety – was highlighted in Lord Carter’s February 2016 report, Operational productivity and performance in English NHS acute hospitals: Unwanted variations. The programme initially focused on hand hygiene monitoring, but subsequently saw infrared and RFID technology deployed across the New Cross Hospital ‘to pinpoint patients, medical equipment, and staff locations and movement’. The technology also automates the auditing of staff-to-patient contact hours, acuity of patients, capacity management, and hand compliance.

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The Fire Safety Event 2024

National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Birmingham
30th April - 2 May 2024

Wales regional conference, exhibition and awards dinner 2024

International Conference Centre (ICC) Newport
28th - 29th May 2024

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Crowne Plaza Newcastle Upon Tyne
3rd - 5th June 2024

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Manchester Central
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National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Birmingham
25th - 27th June

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Manchester Central
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Access the latest issue of Health Estate Journal on your mobile device together with an archive of back issues.

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