A London NHS trust is planning to use radio frequency identification (RFID) to track surgical instruments through the decontamination process and improve patient safety.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust has begun procurement of a new system that tells staff if surgical equipment has been adequately sterilised.

The application, believed to be among the first of its kind in the NHS, will also identify the surgical equipment used in individual patient operations.

The current methods for tracking surgical instruments are outdated, says a spokesman for the trust.

‘We track all instruments used in a single operation as one item, but RFID will allow us to tag individual instruments, providing greater traceability,’ he said.

‘It will tell us where items are, what instruments have been used in each operation and where they are in the decontamination process. This is vital for ensuring equipment is sterile for operations and patient safety.’

The electronic management system will track tagged items through the sterilisation process to ensure appropriate standards have been met, track individual items and products and link items to individual patients.

It must also link into electronic systems such as theatre, financial and quality management and provide performance analysis to enable the best possible use of resources.

An automated RFID system will allow surgical instruments to be traced without the need for staff to touch the items, reducing the chance of bacteria being transferred, says AMR Research analyst Nigel Montgomery.