NHS launches online Safety Thermometer tool to measure patient harms

The NHS has provided a quick and simple method for surveying patient harms – the Safety Thermometer.

As part of the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) payment programme, from April it will be the recommended tool for measuring pressure ulcers.

As well as recording pressure ulcers, falls, catheters with UTIs, and VTEs, doctors will be able to record and analyse additional local information using the Safety Thermometer. The analysis charting functions are built in to the tool, so the results can be seen straight away.

The Safety Thermometer includes a function for merging patient safety data across all the teams and wards in an organisation, and a built in mechanism to submit data to the NHS Information Centre for inclusion in the national database.