Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,a leader in improving patient safety,reducing clinical variation and driving operational efficiency in theatre, has implemented GS1 bar codes in an effort to improve patient safety and realise cost efficiencies. Glen Hodgson, head of healthcare at GS1 UK, examines what benefits this has brought to the Trust.
Three years ago, Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust realised they needed to make a change in their theatres. Their acute hospital, the Royal Derby, had been built over 10 years ago with 35 operating theatres, considered more than enough at the time, and now they were all full. Short of building more theatres, they needed to find a solution that would maximise their efficiency and usage – without compromising patient safety. The solution was to track and trace every person, every product and every place that formed part of an operating procedure, and that was done using GS1 barcodes.
Leading the Scan4Safety programme
Derby started this process three years ago, before the Department of Health announced their eProcurement strategy. Released in 2014, the strategy outlined a range of measures for greater transparency and efficiency in NHS procurement, including a mandate that means any service or product procured by an acute Trust in England must be compliant with GS1 standards. In 2016, this was backed up by a £12 million investment from the Department of Health for six demonstrator Trusts who would show the benefits, and challenges, of GS1 implementation. Derby were chosen as one of those Trusts and are part of the programme, now known as Scan4Safety.
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