safety at Italian health authority

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The National Healthcare Centre 10 in Florence is the most important health authority in the city. It is spread across
six different locations in Tuscany (Santa Maria Nuova, Nuovo Ospedale San Giovanni di Dio, Santa Maria Annunziata,
Serristori, Nuovo Ospedale del Mugello) and the Istituto Ortopedico Toscano.
This Italian health authority has more than 1400 beds, along with over 7900 doctors, medical attendants, administrative
and support staff who all treat 145,000 patients annually


The Challenge
The National Healthcare Centre 10 in Florence is dedicated to safeguarding
patients during their treatment at any of its facilities. As a result the Florence
authority, together with seven other healthcare centres in Tuscany (Careggi,
Empoli, Grosseto and Siena) organised a patient identification campaign
which was fully supported by the Regional Centre for Clinical Risk
Management.


The Solution
Run by Zebra’s Premier Partner in Florence, the project’s first phase focused
on clarifying the best instruments for optimising patient identification. A survey
was carried out to identify benefits and challanges to a range of solutions used
in other hospitals including: the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, the Niguarda
Hospital in Milan and the Manzoni Hospital in Lecco.


The Benefits
During the 3-month trail, more than 68,000 wristbands were used. The trial’s
results prove that patients are more than happy to use the wristbands which
they understood to have safety benefits. Many were pleased to see the
introduction of the wristbands. 90% of staff interviewed during the trial
highlighted that the wristbands proved to be particularly valuable when patients
were unable to identify themselves


Future Implementations
The project’s main objective was best practice definition for correct patient
identification, in addition to producing a comprehensive guide for the
implementation of such technology across the health authority. The aim was to
identify the benchmarks and the necessary conditions for a computerised
management system, involving all the healthcare services in Tuscany.