The HSE have selected GS1 Standards as the most appropriate means to ensure an efficient, interoperable and secure system of identifying and tracing sterile instruments.

On February 16th last Surgical Loan Set Providers were invited to an afternoon information session on the role of GS1, its traceability standards and the supports available to ensure the successful implementation of this important initiative. GS1 would like to thank all the speakers for their time and vital contribution to the event.

Joy Markey from the HSE spoke from a quality and risk point of view. Joy outlined the need for an auditable and therefore effective and comprehensive traceability solution that is retrospective. Joy highlighted that such a solution would mean Patient Safety and the ability to borrow/loan RIMD to and from other healthcare organisations is achieved whilst ensuring industry standards compliance.

Feargal McGroarty formally of the NCHCD, demonstrated to delegates the need for change within the healthcare supply chain in the context of the Irish Haemophilia crisis. Dr McGroarty demonstrated how GS1 Standards can be applied to ensure patient safety, enable product recall and contribute to cost reduction and stressed that the GS1 standardised barcode was key to the success of the interoperable solution. 

Simon Jackson of MS1 addressed the issues relating to traceability within the loan set sector and outlined the compelling reasons for change to the current systems of traceability. Simon demonstrated that without GS1 unique codes, data is meaningless in supporting unique traceability over multiple sites and showed that It is difficult and sometimes impossible to track a loan sets history to a patient and therefore auditing can be problematic.

There was agreement the patient safety would be the ultimate beneficiary of the project but compliance and a truly interoperable system of traceability would benefit all the stakeholders in the supply chain. Due to the success of the workshop and the positive feedback received from attendees, GS1 will host a second event for loan set providers in the coming weeks. If you would like to register your interest in attending please contact Alan Gormley (vCard) alan.gormley@gs1ie.org for details.

Further reading and resources:

GS1 Standards in Healthcare Supply Chain