Winning a National Patient Safety Award

Emergency and intensive care nurses in North West London are now using a new standard kit bag to transfer patients that is expected to save them significant amounts of time.

Openhouse Products, working with the North London Critical Care Network (NWLCCN) have developed the Critical Care Patient Transfer bag to deliver standardised equipment and quick ‘at a glance’ checking to support front line staff when transferring critically ill patients.

The Patient Transfer Bag was designed with human factors at the forefront with full input from frontline clinicians in critical care and emergency departments as well as the creative team at Openhouse Products.

Clinical staff no longer have to carry the bag when managing patients as it is easily attaches onto hospital and ambulance beds and trolleys. Now, the bag is gradually being adopted by other trusts and transfer networks county wide, and internationally. Nurses and other staff involved in patient transfers told the Critical Care Network that while historically each provider or hospital has had a system for equipping transfers of its own in place, it was not previously standardised across regions or networks.

A spokesperson for the North West London Critical Care Network said, 

The Critical Care Network is thrilled to have won this award. The strength of the NWLCC Network is the membership and collaboration of front line clinicians.

This National recognition of our work and this award in relation to patient safety and reduction in variation will help us to continue delivering great results.

Already the project has spread beyond London and we are now hearing of interest from Ireland and Finland. The award will help publicise the Patient transfer bag and we hope that many more critically ill patients benefit as a result.

The Critical Care Patient Transfer bag is made by Openhouse Products, using their own anti-bacterial material ‘micrAgard Plus™’ that is wipe clean, light weight and extremely durable.

The bag has been adopted by hospitals across London and following the release of the bag in September 2016. A detectable drugs bag and pediatric version is now in development too.

The bag is now in stock, to buy yours click here.