Reducing Costs and Improving Patient Safety with Suffolk Primary Care

The Challenge.

Prior to implementing a smart solution, the respon- sibility of fridge monitoring fell to nurses and healthcare assistants within the practices. This additional task was taking time from key members of the team, who would rather be providing patient care.

The quality of the manual process was inconsist- ent, meaning on at least two occasions annually, the contents of entire fridges would have to be destroyed. Fridges across the Suffolk Primary Care Network often contain up to £7,000 worth of medicines and vaccines.

The standard operating procedures in place failed to account for staff sickness, annual leave or basic human error.

This offered implications both in terms of patient safety and from a business perspective for the trust.

To give time back to the staff, reduce risk and better care for their patients, Suffolk Primary Care made the decision to implement an Invisible Systems smart solution.

Made up of both temperature and energy sensors, the trust began monitoring fridge temperatures and energy usage across all 14 of their GP surger- ies.

It was important for the team at Suffolk Primary Care to be able to quantify the impact of the pilot project and the savings generated in order to justify ongoing investment from the primary care practice.