iPods save over 750 lives in hospital trial to move away from paper charts

A study says that hundreds of patients at two hospitals were saved after nurses used iPods instead of paper charts to track vital signs.

13:56 24 September 2014

A new system, which involves replacing paper charts with iPods, has saved hundreds of lives, reports suggest.

Based on research published in The British Medical Journal, the number of deaths at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth fell by 397 a year after that the system has been implemented. A similar result was recorded at the University Hospital Coventry where 372 lives were saved in the same period. The reductions have been attributed to the upgrade in technology.

The special software, which is now being used at these hospital, alerts nurses and doctors if a patient’s vital signs are deteriorating.

Nurse Amy-Dawn Lees uses an iPod to record a patient's blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen levels and temperature, as well as tapping in how a patient is feeling.

"The old paper charts were very, very difficult to decipher; the crosses, the arrows, written on the chart by the previous nurse. You can't actually distinguish exactly where the cross is," said Ms Lees.

"On the new electronic charts everything is colour-coded, you are able to see the previous observations in more detail, more accurately and obviously able to see whether your patient is the same, better or worse."