Watchpoint: an NHS-grown electronic communication system shown to improve patient safety

摘要

IntroductionThe safe function of an out-of-hours hospital presupposes thecoordination of its staff. Colchester General Hospital has deployed‘Watchpoint’, an effective new electronic communicationsystem developed entirely by front-line NHS staff. It is shown tosignificantly reduce the number of preventable adverse outcomesresulting from failures in continuity of care.Clinical tasks must be identified, evaluated, allocated andactioned by the relevant team. Failure is possible not only withinbut between each step, as a result of miscommunication. Themain mechanisms for preventing this are high quality handovers,standardised and formal allocation and escalation procedures,and each team’s awareness of the number and scale of remainingtasks, particularly concerning unwell patients.