Trust stands up to lying down
Seven staff at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have been suspended after allegedly taking part in a ‘lying down game’ during a nightshift and posting photographs on Facebook. The Accident and Emergency staff are said to have taken pictures of themselves lying on resuscitation trolleys, ward floors and the trust’s helipad during August. The […]
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Audit Commission warns on poor records
The Audit Commission has called on organisations at all levels of the NHS to improve the standard of record keeping and clinical coding. In its second annual analysis of the national clinical coding audit programme that is run as part of the Payment by Results Data Assurance Framework, the spending watchdog says that errors continue […]
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US releases $1.2 billion for EMRs
The US government is releasing $1.2 billion (€800m) to help healthcare providers implement and use electronic medical records. The grants include $598m (€400m) to set up about 70 health information technology centres, which will provide technical assistance and support for the implementation of EMRs. A further $564m will be spent on health information networks to allow […]
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Personal view: Tim Benson
Standards guru Tim Benson argues that understanding health interoperability, HL7 and SNOMED CT will become increasingly important in this taster of his new book.
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EC demands in-car emergency systems
The European Commission has made a final call to EU countries to implement in-car technology that alerts the emergency services if the car is involved in an accident. In a document entitled ‘eCall – saving lives through in-vehicle communication technology’, the Commission warns that if there is no significant progress in rolling out the system […]
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Personal view: Mary Hawking
NPSA: unsure if wristband target met
The National Patient Safety Agency has said a technical problem means it is unable to establish whether its target to make sure that all patients in England and Wales have printed wristbands has been met. In July 2007, the NPSA said it wanted to see all wristbands being printed by 18 July this year, to cut the danger of […]
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In defence of the Spine
Ewan Davis surprises himself by setting out the case in defence of the NHS Spine. He argues that if we didn’t have it, we’d have to invent it.
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DH launches hospital comparison site
The Department of Health has launched a new comparison element to the NHS Choices website, which allows patients to compare hospitals on indicators from car parking to mortality rates. The service provides a web-based score card to help patients choose the hospital most suited to their needs. It works in a similar way to other internet […]
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One in three don’t collect anti-virals
More than one in three people have failed to collect their anti-viral medicine after being issued with an authorisation number by the National Pandemic Flu Service, according to latest statistics. Figures published by the Department of Health for the first two weeks of the NPFS show that out of 511,282 people who completed assessment on […]
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