Scanning new horizons in patient safety

Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (RCHT) is a Department of Health Scan4Safety demonstrator site for the adoption of GS1 and PEPPOL  standards. James Leaver, chief procurement officer at Royal  Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, provides an insight into the  programme and the difference it is making to the Trust.

The Scan4Safety programme was launched in 2016 by the Department of Health and Social Care (with responsibility since transferring to NHSX) to introduce barcode and scanning technology to NHS Trusts across the country in order to improve patient safety and inventory management.  Deemed a “world first in healthcare”, six demonstrator sites were announced to lead the way with the implementation of GS1 and PEPPOL standards, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (RCHT) being one. 

Global standards such as barcodes, which have existed for almost 50 years, are used across many industries with the aim to improve operational efficiencies.   The retail industry is the one most people are familiar with, in particular supermarkets, which use barcodes to track every movement of a product along the supply chain from manufacturer right through  to who bought it at the tills.