The prescription of oxygen, and its patient-specific target range, is an essential part of a patients journey through hospital - but is often incomplete. The British Thoracic Society (BTS) 2015 audit identified a national-level deficit in oxygen and patient-specific target saturation prescriptions. However, this is not an issue isolated to the UK. Cousins et al (2016) summarised available international data, concluding that universally oxygen prescribing practice is poor. Hyperoxia, particularly in groups susceptible to type II respiratory failure, is also associated with excess morbidity and mortality, further highlighting the need for correct target saturations to identified on admission. 

As electronic prescribing becomes increasingly common practice, we sought to determine if this could be used to achieve the BTS expected standard: ?a target [oxygen saturation] range for all hospital patients at the time of admission?. At our district general hospital (DGH), we used electronic patient records (capturing a 96-hour admission period) to monitor oxygen target saturation prescriptions at admission. Initially just 17% of patients had oxygen prescribed at admission. To improve this, we introduced an ?admission orderset? prescription, which, alongside venous thromboembolism prophylaxis, included an oxygen target saturation prescription. Following implementation we achieved a sustained improvement over the following 10 months, with an average of 53.2% of patients being prescribed oxygen and its target saturations on admission - with further changes planned. 

As technology continues to be integrated into healthcare, simple additions identified at our DGH could be applied internationally to improve patient safety in this area.