Key results
Reduced blood waste to 0.5% vs 12% national average
Maintenance of over 99% traceability of blood stock
The problem
Between 2012 and 2022, the organisation Serious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT), reported an average of 87 instances each year where transfusion errors had occurred.
Royal Papworth historically used a paper-based manual check system to manage transfusions. While blood could be traced until receipt in the hospital laboratory it was difficult to trace it to the patient once it had been collected from the laboratory for use.
The solution
The trust decided to implement an electronic tracking system, Haemonetics’ BloodTrack, to automate processes and bring the data capture and verification steps to the patient beside.
Royal Papworth uses GS1 standards for accurate positive patient identification via a GS1-compliant wristband (using the Global Service Relation Number, GSRN). With the automated system, blood units could then be scanned using the 2D barcode produced by BloodTrack and cross-referenced with the patient details captured in the wristband.
The results
Using the BloodTrack system in conjunction with GS1 standards, Royal Papworth achieved the following results:
- Reduction in blood wastage to 0.5% compared to the national average of 12% in England
- Maintenance of over 99% traceability of blood stock from donor to patient
- Reduced allocation of O negative blood from 12.2% of its total blood supply to 9%
- Decrease in wastage as a percentage of blood stock issue levels of 0.2% compared to the cluster average for a moderate red cell user of 2.6%
- Blood issuable stock index reduced to 5.4 days compared to the cluster average of 6 days
Using blood matching technology and the use of standards forms a significant part of the trust’s wider GS1 ecosystem and Scan4Safety initiative to support the provision of safer patient care."
Andrew Raynes
Chief information officer
Next steps
Royal Papworth is currently introducing a new laboratory information management system (LIMS) to support their processes. Once this has been completed, the trust plans to explore the implementation of bedside collection and labelling.
Following this, the trust plans to expand the use of wristband scanning and barcoding to other areas of care, such as medication administration and specimen collection.