For Anaesthetists — safer medication practice without friction

The challenge

Anaesthesia is one of the few places in the hospital where a single clinician prescribes, prepares, checks and administers medication — at speed, under pressure, and often while documenting by hand.

Human-factor risk in fast workflows

Drug preparation, checking, labelling and administration happen in a fast-moving environment where even excellent clinicians are exposed to error.

Documentation that competes with care

Manual or awkward digital entry pulls attention away from the patient, and paper records are weak on legibility and completeness.

Systems not built for theatre

Generic hospital software forces ward workflows into the operating room — slowing you down instead of supporting you.

What changes with SAFERsleep

SAFERsleep OR sits on the anaesthetic machine with a touch screen, keyboard and barcode reader positioned for easy entry — built around real anaesthesia workflow.

Barcode double-check before administration. Scanning each drug gives a fast second check, with visual and spoken confirmation of what you are about to give.
Clinical alerts that work for you. Allergy and interaction warnings, antibiotic timing prompts and blood-loss reminders — spoken and on screen.
Records that write themselves. Key physiological data are plotted automatically into a time-related, legible record — printed or online.
Templates for recurring cases. User-specific templates speed entry of repeat instructions and prescriptions for similar procedures.

The evidence

SAFERsleep is one of the few anaesthesia medication-safety systems whose results have been measured and published in peer-reviewed clinical studies.

35%

relative reduction in parenteral drug errors in a large incident-monitoring study — from 0.049 to 0.032 errors per administration.

21%

lower overall error rate in a randomised clinical evaluation — mean errors fell from 11.6 to 9.1 per 100 administrations.

More time

task analysis showed clinicians spent less time on record-keeping and more time observing patients.

Results from published clinical studies of the SAFERsleep system in live theatre use.

Your questions, answered

Q.Will this slow me down?

No — scanning is quick and doubles as your second check, and templates make recurring entries faster than writing them. Task analysis in published evaluation found clinicians spent less time on record-keeping overall.

Q.Will it distract me from the patient?

The opposite. With the record building itself and prompts delivered by voice as well as screen, the same study found clinicians spent more time observing their patients, not less.

Q.Was this designed around real anaesthesia workflow?

SAFERsleep was designed by anaesthetists for anaesthetists and has been refined in live theatre use for over two decades. It exists because generic systems didn't fit the way anaesthesia actually works.

Q.Will my colleagues actually use it?

Departments consistently describe SAFERsleep as easy to learn and rapidly adopted — including by senior colleagues who were initially sceptical of 'new' technology.

Fits your theatre, not the other way around

Mounted where you work

Touch screen, keyboard and barcode reader on the anaesthetic machine, positioned for easy data entry during a case.

One entry, whole journey

Patient information from SAFERsleep PREOP — alerts, allergies, history — flows straight into your anaesthetic record.

Easy to learn

Intuitive design keeps training to a minimum, so lists aren't disrupted while the department comes on board.

As far as I am aware SAFERsleep is the only commercial system in the UK designed specifically as a record keeping system for anaesthesia (by anaesthetists for anaesthetists). It is extremely user friendly and has many features that improve patient safety while not getting in the way of patient flow. I have a number of older colleagues who were not keen on trying this 'new' technology and they are all now very happy with the system.

Dr Richard Cope MDLead Congenital Cardiac Anaesthetist, University Hospital Southampton

See it working in a theatre like yours

Ask for a presentation or hands-on demonstration and judge the workflow for yourself — then put it in front of your department.

Request a demo

Information for other roles

Every member of the evaluation team sees SAFERsleep differently. Share the page that answers their questions. See all roles →

Patient Safety & Governance

Measurable medication-safety improvement, stronger traceability and audit-ready records.

IT & Informatics

A supportable, interoperable solution that fits hospital systems and real constraints.

Procurement & Finance

A defendable business case balancing safety, cost, supplier confidence and risk.

Executive & Board

A strategic, scalable safety and governance improvement for the whole perioperative pathway.