Patient Safety
Recommended by the Department of Health and the National Patient Safety Agency, our standards help hospitals keep patients safe
Why use GS1 standards?
The GS1 System is an integrated set of global standards that enable organisations to uniquely and accurately identify products, assets, locations or service types using bar codes and other data carriers. Therefore, they help organisations to communicate information between each other securely. Our system is the most widely used set of standards of its kind in the world.
When the healthcare supply chain is more responsive, efficient and accurate, it reduces errors, process time and cost. It also enables healthcare professionals to provide an even higher quality of patient care.
How can GS1 standards make patients safer?
- they prevent administration and prescription errors
- medicines can be dispensed more quickly
- information can be recorded after scanning at the point of use
- medicines can be better managed
- there are fewer adverse events and critical errors
- medicines can be more easily traced which allow you to check authenticity for product recalls
- order processing and receipt is simpler and more accurate
GS1 standards differ from others you may have come across because they are:
- open and compatible - you won’t be locked into proprietary solutions because our standards are interoperable and compatible with many technology solutions. It means you can free up your research and development resources for other added- value projects, after you adopt our standards.
- used globally - healthcare is a global industry and supply chains often cross national borders. A global standardised system for tracing items from production to the hospital bedside is vital to meet growing legal requirements. When trading across borders, companies can use our global trade item numbers (GTINs) to identify products in any country without the risk of restrictions or errors.
- proven and tested - GS1 standards have been tried and tested for over 30 years and are used widely in different sectors globally.
- simple to use - standards must be simple so they can be used by everyone in the supply chain, without excluding members because they are too complex
Contact us to:
- Find out more or for help with healthcare standards and solutions
T: 020 7092 3500
E: info@gs1uk.org
Useful documents & links