University Hospital CHU Dijon, the largest public hospital in the Bourgogne region of France, has taken steps to ensure greater supply chain security and efficiency by implementing a process that enables the internal traceability of medical products, from the warehouse to individual care units within the hospital.

The ability to electronically track and trace a product has the potential to not only save time and costs, but also to improve patient safety and the quality of care. The hospital established a warehouse logistics platform using GS1 standards as the basis of its traceability process, and is seeing significant improvements in efficiency, traceability and, ultimately, patient safety.

To address this need, the health system has deployed a full suite of GS1 standards for identifying, capturing and sharing information to support interactions with its suppliers, including GS1 Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards.

As a result, Ramsay has increased both the speed and efficiency of its purchasing processes, strengthened the efficient operation of its hospitals and helped ensure the continuous delivery of quality healthcare. In addition, procure-to-pay processing costs have decreased by approximately 95 percent per transactional document.

Supporting positive patient identification is especially important in busy clinical areas and where mis-identification could lead to adverse events.

Using GS1 standards as the needed foundation, ACT Health and Canberra Hospital are identifying their patients and care providers for ensuring accuracy in patient-care processes throughout each patient’s journey within their hospital. As a result, there has been more than a 40 percent reduction in wrong-blood-in-tube incidents based on clinicians scanning GS1 barcodes when collecting pathology samples.

The two main hospitals are the Leeds General Infirmary and St James’ University Hospital with over 17,000 staff, 1.1 million out-patient appointments annually and delivering regional specialist care for up 5.4 million people.

Based on the need for greater efficiencies, improved patient safety and lower costs, LTHT decided to focus on standardising the way it captured data. As a result, LTHT implemented Scan4Safety, a programme designed to leverage GS1 standards and barcodes to track patients, products and locations. The benefits for both LTHT and its patients have been immense. From improvements in inventory to more time with patients, Leeds hospitals are taking an incredible journey as they scan for safety.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) wanted to adopt barcode technology to use with its patient identification systems to improve patient safety and to comply with GS1 standards as part of the NHS Scan4Safety programme.

As part of the implementation, LTHT explored and assessed various technologies, ultimately selecting Zebra Technologies (Zebra) as the most appropriate technology and implementation partner. Results seen have been comprehensive, including cost savings related to both the hardware and ongoing purchase of wristbands, as well as an improved patient experience from the use of more comfortable Z-Band UltraSoft wristbands. The overall percentage of ongoing calls received by LTHT about wristband printer issues has been monitored and has decreased since the deployment of the Zebra solution.

Could a transition occur effectively and efficiently?

Johnson & Johnson Supply Chain (JJSC) embraces the concept of standardisation and has invested in standard operating procedures, common platforms and GS1 standards. A portfolio of products was selected to be converted from the original track and trace technology used for China to a global standardised approach using GS1 standards.

However, when the time came to integrate their pathology services with a neighbouring trust, they found the need to introduce an interoperable solution that could interact with both trust systems using GS1 standardised information.

During this time, Royal Papworth began work on a larger-scale, complex project to integrate five separate systems, including one for electronic prescribing and medicines administration (EPMA), with their existing electronic patient record (EPR). The results enabled them to share vital patient information, improve patient safety and increase traceability across both trusts.

The hospitals’ surgery departments used non-standardised manual processes for the replenishment of goods, making them timeconsuming with increased risk for human error.

There was also an insufficient way to track and trace implants and their patients. Finally, the hospitals needed a better understanding of the total cost for surgeries.

North Denmark Region’s IT department developed an automated process for replenishment that allows staff to scan GS1 barcodes on products used in surgery, directly from the operation theatre. The system was been expanded to include traceability capabilities for implants to patients, named the Implant Trace Module (ITM). Since the traceability system is scalable, it has been implemented in all Surgery departments.

Its connection with the university gives the hospital access to the latest technologies, globaltier medical knowledge and clinical research.

UCC covers a full range of medical services, advanced diagnostics, various surgical procedures, transplantation procedures, rehabilitation and palliative care. The hospital has most specialties available within the area of medical service, meaning that it can offer comprehensive treatment to patients, including those suffering from numerous concurrent diseases.

It would be necessary to take another sample (perhaps by another potentially invasive operation) or the hospital might be unable to retrieve another sample, unnecessarily delaying the diagnosis and treatment for the patient.

St. James’s Hospital in Dublin investigated GS1 standards-based RFID (radio frequency identification) technology in 2014 as a method of tracking anyone or anything that could move or be transferred within the hospital. By placing an RFID tag on an asset, person or item and installing an RFID infrastructure within the campus, it can now be tracked and located. The RFID project called PATH (Patient and Asset Tracking in Healthcare) is part of a broader overall traceability strategy in the hospital.