The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7489 p169
16 February 2008

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Care bundles reduce ICU pharmacy costs in Wales

All adult intensive care units across Wales have reduced their pharmacy costs, some by as much as 50 per cent, after adopting care bundles, according to the Welsh Critical Care Improvement Programme.

The units adopted two sets of interventions, called care bundles (see Panel), one to prevent ventilator-acquired pneumonia and another to maintain central lines, Chris Hancock, project manager for the Welsh programme, told delegates at a recent Healthcare Events conference that focused on care bundles.

Since then staff have recorded daily care bundle compliance data, which were placed on a database and shared by all trusts involved. This led to a national mean compliance of 95 per cent with the ventilator bundle since September 2006 and a national mean compliance of 90 per cent for the central line bundle since January 2007, he said.

“All have reduced their pharmacy costs and a majority of units have experienced [longer periods] between central line infections,” Mr Hancock said. However, it was not the positive outcomes but the data collection and feedback system that seem to have been the most important tools for change, he said. The programme is now considering helping units to adopt the sepsis bundle, he added.

Care bundles are likely to form part of a new campaign to encourage adoption of patient safety practices to be launched in England in the summer. The campaign, which has yet to be named, will complement the 60th anniversary celebrations for the NHS, said conference chairman Stephen Ramsden, chief executive of Luton and Dunstable NHS Foundation Trust.

Scotland has already set up a similar campaign, he said, with Wales and Northern Ireland to follow shortly. The campaign will be voluntary with organisations signing up to carry out particular interventions consistently.