Healthcare is by nature a global sector. Regarding the fact that it is an information intensive industry with supply chains that often cross borders, a standardised system for traceability from product manufacture to patient treatment, is imperative to comply with the increasing legal requirements for product traceability regionally, and globally. Throughout the Healthcare sector, adopting & implementing global supply chain standards, enable the effective and efficient rod-out of automatic identification and traceability systems throughout the Healthcare sector.
Main Challenges Facing the Healthcare Supply Chain
Hospitals, caregivers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and distributors as well as pharmacy chains and all other stakeholders in the healthcare supply chain, are seeking a standardised way to improve business visibility throughout the supply chain in order to face main threats and problems occurring up and downstream.
Some challenges:
Counterfeited drugs - “The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in many countries in the region, more than 30% of medicines on sale can be counterfeit” The introduction of a standardised RFID based system to help uniquely identifying drugs and all healthcare products at all packaging levels, from finished goods at the manufacturer’s to the end of treatment at the healthcare facility, enabling authentication and traceability systems, and making the process much more difficult for counterfeiters to intrude into the Healthcare supply chain, or at least, make it uneconomic.
Medication errors - Medication error adverse events can occur every day in every hospital worldwide and are drawing increasing media attention. They can have far reaching consequences which can include: additional treatment, disabilities (temporary or permanent), or even in extreme cases – death.
Several studies, in different countries, indicate that adverse effects from medication errors represent a significant problem for Healthcare worldwide.
USA – medical errors in hospitals result in presentable adverse event with up to 98,000 patients dying each year, which costs the sector US$ 138 to 192 billion annually. Medication errors account for 7,000 of these deaths.
Standardised RFID based system can automatically match the right patient with the right treatment. Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) systems significantly reduce the risk of medication dosage errors and allow caregivers to focus on what really matters: patient care.
Managing medical supplies - Caregivers need to quickly and efficiently find medical supplies and equipment, as to be able to provide optimal patient care and reduce time spent on searching. In the UK, nurses spend 26 days each year (per nurse) on hunting for missing supplies and equipment, equaling almost one billion Sterling pounds of nurses’ wages, which represents a burdening overhead for the overall Healthcare supply chain in England.
EPC-global/RFID data carrier enables real time view of stock levels of medical supplies and electronic records to track the location of equipment, allowing caregivers to have the right items available at the right time, while spending more time in patient care.
Patient identification - For patient identification, it is efficient to track and trace patient reports and records of treatments in a fast, simple, and secure way, in order to manage all patient’s present and historical data (if existing) with a smooth and accurate process.
Wrist bands with RFID tags would have the patient’s unique number in a scannable form linking that patient to their electronically-stored medical records. RFID tags could be reprogrammable to ensure vital medical information is carried with the patient at every point of their hospital stay, updated for each treatment, blood transfusions, and surgeries as well as all other transactions.
Conclusion
Adopting and implementing the EPC-global/RFID based system of standards in the Healthcare sector enables healthcare stakeholders throughout the whole supply chain to realize allover benefits that will increase efficiency, save costs of wasted administration time spent, eliminate paper work, reduce medication errors, and prevent counterfeiting … Most importantly, saving more lives.
GS1 helps healthcare stakeholders in adopting and implementing these global standards everyday and everywhere.
Source: GS1 Egypt Amr Khattab, Senior Marketing and Training Executive - GS1 Egypt GS1 is a registered trademark of GS1 AISBL For more information please visit www.gs1.org/healthcare - www.gs1eg.org