identity.
"At present errors, many of which are caused by getting the patient identity wrong, cost the NHS around 2 billion in extra bed days," said a statement from the Department of Health on the proposal to use the identifiers. "Auto-identification could make a significant impact on this cost.

"
on losses," said Booth. "Precisely how much of this is down to misidentification of patients? And if it's so much, then why the hell haven't they fixed it before now?

If they gave an accurate figure for extra bed-time due to misidentification, would it reveal that the cost/benefit really isn't there?"
standards on which all future NHS ID systems will operate, and has from bar coding technology.
the NHS in order to save lives, reduce mistakes and improve efficiency," said Health Minister Lord Hunt.

reader can be used to verify the patient's identity at any time, the right care," said the Department of Health statement.
use the GS1 coding system for bar codes and RFID tags. It is not mandating the use of tags, but is recommending them and recommending the adoption of a common technical standard.

As an example of good practice, the statement singled out Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham, which has used RFID bracelets to identify patients. RFID is still a controversial technology when used in human identification, because many systems than those belonging to operator of the system.
Booth, though, said that the whole operation bands themselves to be filled in more legibly," said Booth.

"Has the Department of Health done proper comparative trials? The Heartlands Trust stuff quoted is just anecdotal, and the case study is about supply chain, not healthcare. It is really great to hear bottles of pills.

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Success: simple technology for safer patient care.