1 week Ago By SCMP Editorial
Hi-tech tools have been prescribed to help make Hong Kong public hospitals safer after a recent series of medical blunders and equipment failures. The measures should be welcomed as a good step towards minimising human error in a system understandably struggling to overcome staff shortages, stress and other challenges. The six measures being implemented by the Hospital Authority include a new database of patient wounds and smart medicine cabinets.
Accident and emergency (A&E) wards are also being fitted with vital sign monitors for high-risk patients and smart oxygen tanks that sound an alarm when levels run low. For patients at risk of wandering off, such as children or those with dementia, wristbands with RFID or Bluetooth technology will alert staff. Similar safeguards are being provided with motion sensors in bathrooms.
The measures are a response to 31 recommendations put forward last November by a special committee appointed to do a “full body check” of the authority after medical blunders at public hospitals described as a “systematic issue” by the city’s health minister..
