Despite significant technological and organizational progress, hospital units face many problems in their operations related to access to data on the material costs of patient treatment, a large number of manual tasks, as well as low efficiency in planning medical services, optimizing medical staff time, and optimizing the use of medical equipment. Another problem is the counterfeiting of medicines and the threat to patient safety. One way to solve these problems is to reorganize hospital logistics processes using automatic data collection and electronic data exchange systems, based on uniform identification and communication standards that are technology-independent.
Technologies enabling process automation found their ardent supporters over 30 years ago. Today, millions of companies around the world benefit from automatic data collection systems
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ADC (Automatic Data Capture), for example based on barcodes, and electronic data exchange
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EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). In recent years, interest in these techniques has also extended to hospital units.
As experience in Europe shows, by applying uniform logistics solutions proven in other industries, it is possible to quickly improve the efficiency of a hospital’s operation, reduce its operating costs, and limit risk factors affecting patient safety in the hospital.
It is widely known in many industries that the use of information techniques (automatic data collection, electronic data interchange EDI, Internet-based communication systems, warehouse management systems, etc.) based on internationally accepted GS1 standards helps to reduce costs, increase operational efficiency, and drastically reduce treatment errors.
ADC and EDI techniques are used in many places: from verifying patient identity, through recording serial numbers of medical devices, to tracking the movement and origin of individual surgical instruments in the sterilization process. Automatic data collection systems can also be used in the scope of hospital resource management.
The GS1 system – proven solutions, or why reinvent the wheel
Internal systems work well within the boundaries of a single enterprise. However, if enterprises, in this case healthcare facilities, begin to cooperate and exchange information, internal systems introduce potential communication barriers – different languages, nomenclature, and indexes require adjustment, which constitutes a significant cost element. Using international GS1 data structures, where the meaning and structure of data for commercial and administrative processes are defined in an open manner, overcomes these problems, enabling conflict-free supply chain management, regardless of the industry. In other words, elements of ambiguity and confusion are removed from supply chain management. This is also of great importance in the case of hospitals that buy products and services from other enterprises, execute and document commercial transactions, etc.
The GS1 system is a set of international standards aimed at improving the functioning of supply chains regardless of the industry. The basis of the GS1 system consists of globally unique numbers used to identify trade and logistics units, locations, assets, and service relations, as well as electronic documents. The standards, which have been in operation worldwide for over 30 years, are most widespread in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. However, due to the open and universal nature of the GS1 system, these standards are also used in the hospital industry, among others. The increasing number of GS1 standard implementations around the world shows how a uniform way of collecting and exchanging data allows for achieving far-reaching benefits in the form of: saving time and money, reducing inventory, or increasing patient safety.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 6/2010.