SafetyCulture
Spamedica logo

SpaMedica

How SpaMedica used digital checklists and sensors to deliver high-quality eye care to their patients.

19 hospitals

600 staff

Spamedica logo

We use SafetyCulture for

SpaMedica

SpaMedica is one of the leading providers of NHS ophthalmology services in the UK, with over 600 staff. They are the largest provider of NHS cataract surgery, helping thousands of people each year improve their vision.

They have 19 hospitals, and are expanding their services across England. SpaMedica is using SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor) to help them manage health checks in all of their hospitals, supporting the delivery of safe and high-quality care to their patients.

https://www.spamedica.co.uk/

Keeping on top of measures

SpaMedica’s eye drops are refrigerated, and need to be maintained at a precise temperature (between 2 and 8 degrees). This means the temperature of their fridges needs to be monitored to prevent wastage.

SpaMedica also needed a solution to ensure their operating theatres remain at a stable temperature throughout all eye surgeries.

It was identified that there were two main control measures that needed implementing:

  • Creating an ambient room temperature for all operations
  • Keeping the fridges at a constant temperature to store medicines

The Health and Safety Manager at SpaMedica, Gayle Steadman, had previously heard of SafetyCulture, and was aware of SafetyCulture’s new sensors, which would be perfect for SpaMedica’s requirements and would also enable their teams to monitor, report, and audit their required targets.

In order to conduct the necessary checks, SpaMedica opted to use SafetyCulture’s humidity and temperature sensors and reporting tools to capture the data in real-time. Austin Hankinson, Fleet and Facilities Assistant at SpaMedica, speaks to its efficiency.

“This gives us real-time monitoring of what’s going on in the fridges, which alleviates the job of manually monitoring the temperatures and provides the assurance that our medication is being kept at the exact right temperature.”

Spamedica eye tests

Minimizing risk

By using the sensors with SafetyCulture, SpaMedica was able to monitor outages and temperature changes, across all their hospitals, as and when they happened. This included being able to monitor fridge temperatures remotely and to make sure they stayed within the required parameters. They can also share the recorded data with their teams to verify that the medications are safe to use.

With this monitoring, SpaMedica has eliminated the risk of losing more than £50,000 worth of medication, and removed any potential disruption to their patient services in all their hospitals.

Using SafetyCulture in this way, clearly has helped them to greatly minimize risk in their business and continue to deliver patient services, as usual.

Business continuity, simplified

SpaMedica is continuing to expand their list of templates and roll them out across the organization, saving them huge amounts of time in conducting checks. In their theatres, for example, they also actively monitor humidity and temperatures to ensure these are maintained at the optimal levels for patient safety.

Implementing automated checks, has saved hours of manual checks, and allowed SpaMedica to continue delivering their high quality care to eye patients across the UK.

So, would they recommend SafetyCulture sensors to other companies who are looking for a real-time monitoring system? Austin offers a definitive yes.

“The reliability is definitely a factor. Plus, there is no I.T. support required for this… it really helps take the weight off the shoulders of all our teams. It’s also great for auditing purposes when we get inspected by official governing bodies.”

Many other SafetyCulture’s customers that do repetitive, manual tasks also benefit from using SafetyCulture checklists and sensors. The ability to notify the right people when action is required, and maintain constant visibility (even when your team is off duty), is invaluable.

Looking for more inspiration?

Explore more stories, expert guides, and thought leadership from SafetyCulture