The DruGuardian™
Winner of the 2014 NHS Innovation Competition, Health Enterprise East
The DruGuardian™ has been designed to enable the monitoring of drug cupboard access which in turn helps to modify staff behaviour. The device deters drug theft and tampering, while protecting both patients and staff by making unattended and abandoned drug trolleys a thing of the past.
Background 
The Care and Quality Commission (CQC) perform routine inspections at the trust, one of the requirements that they seek to confirm compliance of, is the correct storage and safe management of medicines. This is in line with the Health and Social Care Act 2008¹.
The CQC frequently report that drug trolleys and cupboards, in hospitals and other care settings, have been left unattended and have not met local and national standard and so may be considered unsafe.
When medications are left unattended, it is clear that there is a risk that medications may be either stolen or tampered with.
Although it is recognised that staff do not leave medications unattended purposefully, it is clear that the nature of the clinician’s role easily allows this to happen.
Solution
In 2015, clinicians at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn, published a paper in the Nursing Times³, it showed that drug trolleys were being left unattended and open for long periods of time throughout the day. After installing the device, the frequency fell from 14 times a day, to just over 1 episode a week. The DruGuardian takes human factors into account and uses operant conditioning to change staff behaviour because of the consequence, in this instance, the alarm on the DruGuardian. A regional study by the EAHSN showed a 95% improvement in correct attendance with the DruGuardian™ in use².
The DruGuardian™ is a small device that is fitted into a drug cupboard or trolley. Once the cupboard is opened, the device starts to record a sequence of photographs on an installed memory card, which can be viewed at any point.
The device will be set to a time frame, normally about 20 - 40 seconds. If the cupboard is left unattended for more than the time frame, it will start to alarm, alerting the clinician to move back in front of the cupboard. The alarm will become louder if the cupboard is not re-attended or closed.
The DruGuardian™ offers the opportunity to:
- Dramatically reduce the incidence of unattended or open drug cupboards
- Dramatically reduce the opportunities for drug theft or tampering
- Reduce the actual number of incidents of drug theft and tampering
- If there is an incident of drug theft or tampering, The DruGuardian™ will dramatically reduce the amount of time spent on the reporting and investigation of the incidence
- Safeguarded staff against accusation or concern due to the photographic evidence the DruGuardian™ reports
- National and local policy and standards will be met
Training
The majority of staff eill not need formal training in the use of the DruGuardian.
The device can be sited in the drug cupboard or trolley and left.
Ideally, a key person will be responsible for checking the device, and this person/persons will be able to create reports and access the data from the SD cards in the device as and when needed.
Procurement/Cost
The DruGuardian™ is available to rent, monthly, from Qualitech Healthcare.
This means that you will always have the most up to date software and you will be able to seek support with maintenance on the rare occasion it is needed, at no additional cost.
Clinical Evidence and References
1. The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010. No.781. The National Health Service, England Social Care, England. Statutory Instruments. 1-26 (2010)
2. Mariyaselvam M, Blunt M, Young P. (2016): Eastern Academic Health Science Network
Implementation
Please contact us for further information and assistance on the implementation of the DruGuardian™.
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