Manchester-based technology company, Purple, has launched a new platform aimed at helping the NHS reduce the £300m of medicine wasted every year and speed up operation waiting times.
It is estimated that nurses spend at least one hour of every shift searching for critical pieces of equipment and medication and only 31% of their total time is spent with patients due to admin.
Furthermore, the £300m in lost medicines could pay for more than 11,000 community nurses or almost 20,000 more drug treatment courses for breast cancer.
Purple’s ‘Intelligent Healthcare’ technology has been created to help increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve patient experience for healthcare organisations in the UK and USA.
The industry-first platform is an asset tracking, navigation and staff efficiency tool which is customisable dependent on the facility’s needs. It can serve as an interactive map for staff-only wayfinding support, for patient-experience wayfinding, to enable healthcare workers to keep track of hospital assets or a combination of all three.
The groundbreaking technology ensures all equipment is traceable and easily findable, thereby reducing time to task, and increasing time for patient care. It also enables incidents to be reported by staff and patients in real time, eliminating potential safety risks as quickly as possible.
With UK and US hospitals accommodating a regular influx of students, temporary and new staff on the premises – and hospital buildings being repurposed or refurbished – the staff efficiency module will enable all employees to move around confidently and efficiently during their shift. Patients will subsequently receive care more quickly and enjoy a more consistent experience, whether from new or more established members of staff.
The app has been meticulously designed to make the user experience as intuitive as possible, using formats and layouts that are familiar to most people.
Gavin Wheeldon, Chief Executive of Purple, commented: “This technology will create a new standard for how hospitals should be run, enabling critical assets to be tracked and located in a quick and easy way.
“Using the app will eliminate wasted time, lost drugs and apparatus and reduce safety risks. Operations are less likely to be postponed due to lack of equipment and fewer patients will be without necessary medicines due to loss or theft.
“As a result, nurses will be far better equipped to deliver the care patients need and the patient is more likely to have a positive experience.
“The NHS is under greater pressure than ever before, with performance data reporting a clear picture of rising costs, longer waiting times and staff shortages. This technology will help address many of these challenges, setting a precedent for a new way of working within the hospital environment.”
Purple has over a decade of experience supporting healthcare organisations across the world. Its strategic partnerships with St George’s Hospital in London and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust delivers WiFi solutions for patients, visitors and staff. The company also recently launched the NHS’ first interactive map in collaboration with Croydon Health Services NHS Trust. The new service will enable visitors and patients of Croydon University Hospital in London to plan their visit from the comfort of their own home or at dedicated information kiosks within the hospital and helps prevent missed appointments and wasted NHS time.
Backed by Sir Terry Leahy, former CEO of Tesco, Purple was established in 2012 and embarked upon a rapid growth trajectory in 2015. The company has worked with some of the most trusted hospitals in the world delivering digital wayfinding solutions for more than a decade.
Image: Gavin Wheeldon
