Personal Patient Pack (PPP)

What it does

Single-Use Devices used on a patient are put in a clinical waste bin immediately and new devices are used on arrival at A&E and the ward. The PPP allows these devices to stay with the patient during a hospital visit which could reduce waste by 67% per patient.

Your inspiration

Primary and secondary research was conducted throughout the development of the PPP. We contacted a number of healthcare professionals who provided invaluable feedback at each stage. The key insight from our research stemmed from a conversation with a paramedic based in Northern Ireland who commented: “All single-use devices are thrown out. What if they could follow the patient?”

How it works

The Ambulance arrives at the scene. The patient requires airway management: Bag Valve Mask (BVM), Delivery Mask and a Nasal Cannula. The devices are placed in the Personal Patient Pack (PPP) after use. Patient details are taken by the paramedic on the iPad. The pack is scanned using an RFID reader attached to the iPad. Details are sent to the hospital in real-time. Upon arrival at A&E, a verbal handover between paramedic and A&E nurse is performed. The PPP is passed over to A&E. Staff can refer to the patient records on the iPad/Work Station on Wheels (WOW). The PPP can be “swiped” with an RFID reader. When the patient is discharged from hospital, the contents of the pack is either recycled (Plastics) or sent for sterilisation (Scissors). The PPP itself is placed in the general laundry container. The laundry is collected as part of the existing system in place. Upon exiting the hospital door, the tags on the PPPs deactivated by the existing RFID system.

Design process

We constantly improved and developed the pocket designs, closing mechanisms, fabric choice and finally the overall size of the PPP. When discussing our idea with the head of procurement in St James’ Hospital, he advised us to make the PPP from white polycotton fabric to ensure that dirt could be easily recognised. We created a product that offered maximum ease of use and accessibility in the case of an emergency. The adjustable strap needed to be strong enough to hold the weight of the devices. The strap was designed to be released quickly if the devices are needed immediately. The orange tags on the PPP were designed to stand out against the white fabric. The black arrows also clearly communicate to the healthcare professionals to open the pack in a specified way. The 'do not include' embroidered icons were added to ensure unwanted devices were not included in the PPP. Knowing that cross-contamination is a sensitive area within healthcare, we contacted an infection control officer in St. James’ Hospital, Dublin. She advised us to ensure that the pack could connect to the patient. This lead us to embed RFID Technology into the strap of the pack to reassure healthcare professionals that the devices stay with the patient and also to provide traceability at all times.

How it is different

There is nothing on the market like the PPP. At the moment, single use devices are binned at each sage of patients healthcare journey. This is currently the only pack which aims to assist devices to follow the patient. During an interview with a Paramedic in Dublin, he commented: “This PPP instantly tells me two things: 1) the patient has pre-assembled devices 2) this patient has previously had a respiratory arrest or is at risk.” The PPP is designed to stand out. All elements have been carefully considered to ensure that anyone in the healthcare sector can immediately recognise it and know exactly how to use it.

Future plans

At the moment, we are in discussion with Enterprise Ireland who would like to make our project into a business. We have been talking to the Ellen MacArthur trust who are looking at our design from a sustainability point of view to ensure all elements have been designed for. We know that sustainability is not considered with high importance in healthcare. It is our responsibility to spread the message of our project to really get healthcare bodies to start thinking differently in order to create a positive environmental change.

Awards

We have recently been awarded: - Winner of RSA Student Design Award (2019) for the Circular Emergency brief. - Winner of the D&AD New Blood Pencil Award (2019) for the Side Hustle Brief. - Finalist in the Universal Design Grand Challenge (2019).