iPads brought in to cut stays at Walsall's Manor Hospital

The technology to help record patients' blood pressure, heart rate and temperature is to be rolled out across the wards.

A total of 220 iPods and 66 iPads are being introduced for nurses and clinical staff to use as part of an electronic system.

The VitalPAC approach has been funded through the Government's National Nursing Technology Fund and is initially being piloted on Ward 1, which looks after elderly patients, and 15, which is for people with long term conditions.

It is due to be rolled out across the rest of the hospital over the coming weeks.

The electronic recording of patient observations means concerns can be relayed to doctors faster and reduce hospital stay for patients.

It combines a patient observation details with test results and other data to automatically establish their condition known as an early warning score.

If there are concerns then doctors or specialist staff are immediately alerted and can take action where necessary.

Medic will also be able to access important data about their patients' conditions from anywhere on the hospital's computer network.

Elsewhere in the country, VItalPAC has been shown to reduce the time it takes nurses to complete a set of observations by up to 40 per cent.

This is as well as reducing the length of time patients stay in hospital, increase staff productivity and drastically reduce healthcare-associated infections.

Zena Young, deputy director of nursing at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, said: "Our patients and their families will notice our nurses using iPads and iPods and we want them to be assured that we're not chatting, we're checking.

"Installing VitalPAC across the hospital will give our doctors, nurses and other clinical staff better information, more quickly and will enable them to further improve the way we care for our patients - as well as to work more efficiently.

"We are looking forward to introducing this new way of working and being able to use new technology to deliver significant benefits both for patients and the teams caring for them.

"The system acts like an electronic personal assistant providing additional support to our staff, ensuring that every patient receives the highest standards of care at all times.

"The information that the system gives us about what is happening across the hospital will also help us to ensure we have the right resources available in the right place."