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ADVERSE CLINICAL INCIDENT SYSTEM IS READY FOR THE NATIONAL PATIENT SAFETY AGENCY SAYS SCOTS COMPANY An early warning system developed specifically for the NHS is the ideal vehicle for the new National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) to conduct its work of improving safety throughout the NHS, according to its Scots developers.The SAINT system has been designed specifically for the NHS, compiling, sorting and analysing reports on all medical data from the many differing clinical systems which already operate in the health service. This can range from analysing individual doctor and hospital performance, to treatment outcomes, waiting lists, drug usage and highlighting best, and worst, practice. SAINT (Strategic Analysis of Information on National Trends), will also provide NPSA and the NHS with the earliest possible advance warnings of adverse events, and unprecedented power of analysis of the huge amount of currently unmonitored data swirling around the health service. SAINT has the additional benefit of being able to use all of the existing NHS software and hardware, removing the need for any costly IT replacement programme, it literally plugs into the existing infrastructure. Developed by Renfrewshire-based Hanon Solutions, supported by both Microsoft and Compaq, SAINT is designed to dramatically cut the 850,000 adverse clinical incidents recorded with the NHS annually and save around £1bn a year. The system extracts information and simultaneously analyses data and produces reports in real time. By providing independent reporting of clinical incidents, it can quickly build up a local, regional or UK national profile. In addition, SAINT: Provides an early warning system which can be programmed to actively flag when a clinical incident has occurred. Maintains patient safety by recording and constructing a database of best and worst clinical performance, providing independent support for clinical governance Ensures that data security is maintained by using the NHSnet and associated security protocols Is installed according to the Application Service Provider model, a rental basis which provides the following further benefits to the NHS: Short project lead-times No capital outlay Highly secured data No requirements for specialist IT staff or additional hardware It is easily expandable to multiple sites System self-maintenance with on-line back up minimising disaster recovery systems and procedures Flexible range of data sets can be extracted and recorded
SAINT is currently being piloted in a Scottish NHS Trust, regarded as the first study of its kind in the world. To rigorously test the system, Hanon has linked two currently incompatible IT systems together for the Trust, the clinical pharmacists system used to record drug information at one hospital with the in-house clinical system used by nurses in another. In linking both systems adverse drug events can be extracted, analysed and reported to clinical staff in real time. This will also provide valuable information on trends and statistics and form an ‘early warning system’ on adverse drug events for the two hospitals. |