A new £700,000 computer system has been installed in the in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary intensive care unit to replace traditional bedside charts, saving staff time and improving patient safety.

The upgrade, paid for by NHS Grampian’s endowment fund, records physical measurements like blood pressure and heart rate as well as blood results and parameters from the various machines used in intensive care, such as dialysis machines and ventilators.

“At the heart of this change is patient safety”, says intensive care unit (ICU) clinical director Dr Iain MacLeod. “It will also save on staff time. Currently medical staff members waste lots of time transcribing blood results from a computer onto sheets of paper. The new system allows this to happen automatically.

“That’s great from a timesaving point of view but more importantly there will be a reduction of errors that can happen when writing something down.”

Fellow ICU consultant Dr Andrew Clarkin, who led the project to install the new equipment, added: “The information coming in and out of the machines allows us to have an overview of the patients, and while all that information was there before in paper form it’s more modern and more environmentally friendly as well as improving safety.

“Longer term it has huge audit and research potential. This is a database we’ll be able to examine and look at our processes and all the things we do in intensive care.”

The ICU at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary treats around 800 patients every year plus a further 400 cardiac patients.

ICU clinical information systems manager Lieneke van Beijma said: “All the information automatically arrives in the system, making nurses and doctors lives easier with a full digital patient record and electronic prescription system.

“This replaces the traditional bedside chart – it’s all in the computer system.”

Sheena Lonchay, manager of the NHS Grampian endowment fund, said she was “delighted the charity has been able to support the project”.

She said the charity’s investment in the ICU reflected the generosity of patients and their families in recognising the care they have received from the ICU team. 

“The Endowment Fund exists to benefit patients in ways that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible and that is exactly what this system does,” she added.