Benefits for the Care Provider

• The bottle is filled with fresh, cold, water at the start of the day and has sufficient capacity to last for most of the day thus removing the need for staff to run around carrying out the non-medical task of helping patients to drink. It would be refilled in the early evening to provide an overnight supply
• The bottles are marked in 100ml gradation thus making it very simple for staff to accurately monitor fluid intake - a requirement for nurses that is currently difficult or impossible to do accurately
• The accurate measuring of intake can also be used to limit a patient's intake where necessary - for example, they may be only allowed 300ml per day
• Due to the clever design, the product is unlikely to cause any spillage whereas the current system of plastic cups is often prone to accidents. Thus there is a potential time saving by removing the need for staff to mop up, and possibly change bed sheets, due to spillage
• No open cup or container that is liable to attract airborne contaminants
• Ultrasound scans require a full bladder, this product offers a way of ensuring a specific amount of water is drunk

Cost savings:

• The time saved for nursing staff can be used to provide better care in other, more appropriate, areas and thus speed patients recovery
• A well hydrated person will be less likely to develop secondary problems thus reducing the need for additional drugs, particularly laxatives
• Good hydration speeds recovery and thus frees up beds more quickly and offering potentially huge cost benefits
• The drinking device is a very low cost and when looked at relative to the savings it will help to make it will pay for itself within a day or so and yet is completely washable and reusable

The cost savings, from reducing both the use of additional drugs and shorter stays in hospital, are potentially dramatic, and all for a very low initial spend on the product. For example:
• If just 10% of the Nurses in the NHS saved 15 minutes per day the value of that in increased efficiency would be around £36m per year
• A reduction of just half a day in hospital stays due to correct hydration would show a saving of around £250 per bed per week. With 175,000 beds that equates to over £40m per week - over £2 billion per year!

For more information, visit the Hydrate for Health website (it will open in a new browser window).