New awareness campaign aims to help organisations prepare for GS1
June 1, 2019 – Pharmaceutical –
Recent figures suggest that a third of NHS Trust1 are still
not engaged in GS1 despite the Department of Health (DoH) mandate
announced in 2014 to use barcoding standards for all Acute Trusts. To
help tackle this issue Omnicell UK, a leading provider of medication and
supply management solutions to the global healthcare market, has
launched a campaign ëReady for GS1?í to help organisations meet the minimum GS1 Standards required by the DoH for inventory management by 2019/20.
The
initial interim report into operational productivity within the NHS by
Lord Carter made it clear that hospital efficiency needed to be at a
consistently high standard and highlighted the need to embrace
innovation and digital technology to ensure continual improvement. Many
hospitals are yet to automate their medical supply and medication
processes which means they are holding months of supplies unnecessarily
and are unable to automatically reorder new medication/stock or provide
an accurate figure of individual patient treatment costs. Hospitals are
wasting millions of pounds on supplies they donít need simply because
they donít know what is being used, where, how and by whom. In addition,
outdated manual systems are eating-up valuable clinician and healthcare
professional time which could be redirected back into face-to-face
patient care.
Such is the scale of the problem that the report
predicts that the introduction of the GS1 programme will allow every
hospital to on average save a staggering £3 million per year2. Yet, as with many aspects of the digital age, it can often be hard to know where to start which is why the new ëReady for GS1í campaign by Omnicell UK aims to debunk the myths and complexities surrounding the issue and offer practical solutions.
The
GS1 mandate is set against an alarming back-drop of scandals and
worrying statistics in terms of patient safety and care. Many of the
50,000 women in the UK who had PIP breast implants were not aware of
which devices they had and due to a lack of effective administration
there was and still isnít a way of communicating to all of those
patients affected by the faulty implants3. Access to high
quality and reliable data about the performance over the full life of
the device or patient is critical to making effective clinical decisions
– this is becoming increasingly important as patients are living
longer.
The awareness campaign, which aims to ensure GS1
standards are adopted by all hospitals, will include a number of
activities such as;
- Social media campaign using Twitter #readyforGS1
- Development and distribution of educational materials e.g leaflets, brochures
- Advertising & educational features in trade media
As
part of the campaign programme Omnicell will be working with a number
of NHS hospitals to get them up to GS1 standards before sharing best
practice from the sites later in the year. One of these hospitals is the
University Hospital of North Tees.
Philip Dean, Chief Pharmacist, North Tees & Hartlepool Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust comments:
‘We
already know from experience that the introduction of Omnicellís ward
based automated technology fundamentally improves medicines management.
The addition of GS1 codes will enable the rich flow through of
information and integration with other clinical and logistics systems,
the benefits are obvious.’
Paul OíHanlon, Managing Director for
Omnicell comments; ‘GS1 standards need to be in place by 2019/20 and
thatís why itís crucial for all Trusts to be in the process of
developing a robust plan. Here at Omnicell, we are best placed to help
Trusts to navigate the GS1 process – we have already helped 100 NHS
hospitals to save a total of £50 million with our range of solutions.
Drawing on 20 yearsí experience in ensuring the health of patients
through reliable inventory management systems, we know that one system
wonít fit every hospital. As such, we can commit a dedicated project
team to work with you to design a solution that will fit each individual
scenario. We are the only GS1 accredited partner to offer the full
range of scanning, cabinet and RFID systems with unrivalled NHS
experience.’
References
1. GS1 Healthcare Conference 2016 – Glen Hodgson, Head of Healthcare, GS1 UK
2. Review of Operational Productivity in the NHS, Providers Interim Report, Lord Carter of Coles, June 2015
3.
Professor Terence Stephenson, Chair of the General Medical Council,
writing in NHE May 2016
http://www.nationalhealthexecutive.com/Comment/gs1-as-a-patient-safety-initiative
