Scan4Safety

Tag: Highlight

  • Implementation of bedside electronic transfusion checks at Barts Health Trust: Quantifying benefits

    Implementation of bedside electronic transfusion checks at Barts Health Trust: Quantifying benefits

    Barts Health NHS Trust enhances patient safety with bedside electronic transfusion checks

    Barts Health NHS Trust has introduced an innovative bedside electronic transfusion checking system, ensuring greater patient safety during blood transfusions. This system allows healthcare professionals to verify blood compatibility electronically at the bedside, reducing the risk of transfusion errors.

    By implementing this technology, Barts Health Trust is able to track and measure improvements in patient safety and operational efficiency. This initiative marks an important step in driving forward safer and more efficient transfusion practices across the NHS.

    Read the full article on Patient Safety Learning Hub here.

  • Case study: End-to-end product traceability enables safer, more efficient care for Lancashire

    Case study: End-to-end product traceability enables safer, more efficient care for Lancashire

    National Scan4Safety partner, GS1 UK, has published a new case study exploring how NHS trusts in Lancashire have used Scan4Safety to achieve end-to-end product traceability to enable safer, more efficient care.

    The case study explains how barcode scanning technology for stock control freed up time for nurses to provide more direct patient care.

    Read the case study on the GS1 website.  

    GS1 UK is a not-for-profit organisation that maintains barcode standards for healthcare products and equipment. GS1 standards and are the preferred barcode standards for use in the NHS.

  • Scan4Safety using GS1 standards at the core of the patient pathway

    Scan4Safety using GS1 standards at the core of the patient pathway

    As part of their Scan4Safety implementation programme, Hull focused on a connected, continuous and complete process with the patient front and centre.

    The Problem 

    Hull University Teaching Hospital (HUTH) wanted greater visibility of the care pathways for patients. For this the trust needed access to data, standardised data that would be readily accessible for clinicians when needed to help inform clinical decision making. 

    However, the manual and paper-based processes in place made this a challenge to achieve. What was needed was an automated process that would enable data points to be captured directly at the point of care and linked directly to each patient.

    The Solution 

    HUTH defined a new model focused on the patient and Scan4Safety principles, implementing GS1 identification standards and barcodes throughout the entire patient care journey. 

    Using GS1-compliant barcodes, the trust would be able to scan and capture relevant data (i.e. date, time, staff member, and patient and location data of interventions), and all in real time. 

    This would enable clinical staff to effectively monitor the patient’s journey throughout their stay from admission to discharge.

    The Results 

    Now, clinical decision-making and resource planning is build on fact-based data centred on individual patient care. This also allows the trust to better monitor patient outcomes and produce accurate patient-level information costings (PLICs). 

    There’s also greater visibility across asset and inventory management as products and equipment can be tracked and traced using GS1 standards. Not only does this release time to care and increase productivity but also facilitate the product recall process. 

    Recalls that once could take weeks now take only hours, saving significant time for medical staff.

    Next Steps 

    HUTH has already rolled out Scan4Safety to 19 patient pathways—soon to be 20 with RFID planned next for all assets across all three trust sites. 

    Doing so will allow for assets to be mapped and located with ease, saving huge amounts of nursing and portering time. This will bring coherence to the strategy of asset buying and planned preventative maintenance across the trust’s sites. 

    The full PDF can be found here, posted by GS1 in 2021

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  • More than stock management: the benefits of having a robust IMS during a pandemic

    More than stock management: the benefits of having a robust IMS during a pandemic

    Management of equipment and supplies is vital, even more so during a pandemic. Using Scan4Safety, Plymouth were able to track and locate stock at the touch of a button.

    The Problem

    Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, managing the supply levels of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been critically important.

    Any supplies provided are distributed based on what is available nationwide and that has sometimes meant receiving several different ranges of a product.

    However, whether that is 20 different types of gloves or 50 different types of masks, each item needs to be recorded to monitor stock coming in, and to monitor what is being distributed in case there are unforeseen problems with any items.

    The Solution

    Already using GS1 standards for much their inventory management, Plymouth’s procurement team worked with their inventory-management system (IMS) provider Genesis, to create a PPE tracker to monitor consumption.

    This enabled them to monitor stock levels in real time, updating the IMS to identify what is being used every month, to what is being used in a single day. In turn, this allowed for an accurate account of how many days’ worth of available stock was on the shelves.

    The Results

    Real-time insights have given the trust the capacity to forecast critical resources which, amid the pandemic, has been vital. In its intensive care units, Plymouth are now in a position where they can monitor the average stock and consumables used per patient, and forecast stock ordering for the number of critical-care beds they have, making for a more robust supply chain.

    On receipt of goods, Plymouth are now able to capture details in real-time. In the short term, this has been a huge data-capture effort but the long-term value has been immeasurable.

    Next Steps

    The trust will start soon be starting the next phase of its rollout in cardiology, and continue to work on traceability and inventory management throughout, and beyond, the pandemic.

    The full PDF can be found here, posted by GS1 in 2021

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  • Harnessing the clinical benefits of point-of-care scanning

    Harnessing the clinical benefits of point-of-care scanning

    To make eObs and patient transfers safer and more efficient, Leeds introduced Scan4Safety to capture patient and location information at the point of care.

    The Problem

    The team at Leeds wanted to make their observations process more efficient and to reduce the risk of any manual data entry errors when it came to capturing and reporting results.

    They wanted to ensure that results were updated in real time, directly into the patient record, and that they could reduce the time burden for routine tasks such as patient transfers.

    The Solution

    Starting with adult inpatient wards, Leeds began work on introducing GS1-compliant patient wristbands. These wristbands would use the GS1 unique identifier for people – the Global Service Relation Number (GSRN).

    Wristband scanning was then made a mandatory part of the process for recording electronic observations (eObs) into the patient record with the data linked into the patient record in the trust’s electronic health record (EHR) system, PPM+.

    GS1 Global Location Numbers (GLNs) were also implemented to uniquely identify and track various ward or trust locations, enabling the trust to better track and trace a patient’s whereabouts when transferred.

    The Results

    By scanning the patient wristband with the unique identifier at the point of care, staff were able to obtain an accurate positive patient ID before any clinical intervention. If ever an incorrect wristband was attempted to be scanned into a record, the wristband would fail preventing the risk of an unwarranted error.

    With the GSRN and GLN implemented and associated to the corresponding patient record, the task of transferring patients was made much more efficient. By scanning the patient wristband and site GLN at the point of care or use, staff were able to update a patient’s records in near real time.

    This reduced the time taken to transfer a patient onto a ward from 10-15 minutes to less than two minutes. Plus the completion time for the admissions, discharge and transfers (ADT) process was reduced from taking up to 2.5 hours to complete, reduced to approximately 30 minutes.

    Next steps

    Following the successful roll out of electronic capture of paediatric advanced warning scores (ePAWS) for observations and transfers on the children’s wards, the team continue to work towards completing the full project implementation.

    The project team next plan to expand the use of the PPM+ software to theatres which is one of the main priorities following completion in the intensive care units (ICUs) and high dependency units (HDUs).

    The full PDF can be found here, posted by GS1 in 2022

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  • Key messages from Rachael Ellis

    Key messages from Rachael Ellis

    Rachael Ellis, Scan4Safety programme director, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust explains the key principles of Scan4Safety and the value it affords to both patients and staff.

  • Key messages from Sara Ford

    Key messages from Sara Ford

    Sara Ford, director of strategy, communications and digital, NHS Supply Chain, discusses the benefits of Scan4Safety in preventing Never Events and driving supply chain efficiency.

  • The benefits of a national approach to Scan4Safety

    The benefits of a national approach to Scan4Safety

    A selection of keynote speakers from the GS1 UK Healthcare Conference 2022 reflect on and highlight, the widespread benefits of a national approach to Scan4Safety.