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Hospitals in Canada and worldwide are making changes in their operations to improve patient care, safety and outcomes. They are turning manual processes into digital ones and realizing the value of GS1 global standards as critical enablers of this transformation.
GS1 global standards are enabling healthcare providers to uniquely identify products, patients, caregivers, assets and locations for transparent processes across the healthcare value chain. GS1 global standards provide a global common language—identification, barcodes and data sharing—so that all stakeholders can work together seamlessly.
Protect your patients and your reputation.
Learn more below about how GS1 global standards benefit your organization.
To lead the healthcare sector to the successful development and implementation of global standards by bringing together experts in healthcare to enhance patient safety and supply chain efficiencies.
Bedside scanning – patient, caregiver, product scanning and verification
Electronic Health Records (EHR) – patient's records management
Implant registry
Instrument management and tracking (e.g., surgical instrument tracking, loan-set tracking, etc.)
Product recalls
Regulatory compliance
Traceability
Preparation of patient specific infusion solutions and dispensing of pharmaceuticals
Supporting clinical pathways
Inventory management
Asset management
Patient-level costing
Order-to-cash management
Catalogue management
Hospitals purchase many different kinds of products. They ALL need to be identified with GS1 barcodes so they can be purchased, stocked, dispensed, billed, tracked and recalled efficiently and safely.
Order-to-cash
Dispensing
Compounding
Regulatory compliance and professional practice
GS1 barcodes, combined with accurate data, identify patients, medical products, equipment and caregivers.
Scanning GS1 barcodes automatically enters the right information into an IT system, improving patient safety and creating efficiencies that allow more time for patient care.
Having complete and accurate information in your IT system makes it possible to ensure the rights of your patients and improve the quality of care you give them.
Capturing this information automatically and accurately enables your hospital to operate efficiently and cost-effectively, as well as to comply with regulations.
GS1 barcodes enable your team to improve the safety of their patients by reducing errors associated with manual data entry.
Clinical professionals who have integrated GS1 barcode scanning into their clinical processes testify to the positive impact on patient care.
GS1 barcodes allow you to devote more time to patient care by removing essential but non-beneficial duties.
GS1 barcodes automate processes, providing an extra check on the safety of the care you deliver.
GS1 barcodes enable product visibility, improve the cost efficiency of supply management and the speed of tracing pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
This visibility ensures necessary products are on hand, increasing safety and freeing staff to spend more time with patients.
GS1 barcodes uniquely identify products at all levels of packaging.
Scanning automatically ensures the accuracy of inventory information and usage requirements, and enables effective supply chain and recall management.
GS1 barcodes provide a common language across all information systems throughout the supply chain, from manufacturers to your own hospital’s inventory management and clinical information systems.
This interoperability makes it possible to manage costs and resources more effectively—and helps ensure patient safety.
50.8%
Reduction potential adverse drug events
41.4%
Reduction in medication error rates
Barcode scanning procedures cut current potential adverse drug events by 50.8%¹.
Use of barcodes on medicines to the single-unit level can help reduce medication error rates by 41.4%¹.
¹ E.G. Poon et al. “Effect of Bar-Code Technology on the Safety of Medication Administration,” New England Journal of Medicine, 362 (2010); 18
81%
Patients ID checks
74%
Reduced medication errors
Patient ID checks were only being done 17% of the time; after barcoded identification wristbands were implemented this increased to 81%
¹ NHS Connecting Health
Electronic prescription and barcode point-of-care system reduced medication errors by 74%
² GS1 Healthcare conference, 2010
100%
of medicines located
€5 million
Reduction in product waste
¹ GS1 Healthcare conference, 2011
0%
Non-conformity
Implementing Rectangular DataMatrix with serialised GTIN engraved on instruments and medical devices used in the operating rooms. Appropriate kits and their instruments are registered in the electronic patient record.
¹ GS1 Reference Book 2009-2010
40%
Reduction in time
Implementation of a harmonised use of GS1 standards in all medicines and of an Automatic Identification and Data Capture barcode technology application.
¹ GS1 Reference Book 2015-2016
95%
Lower processing costs
Need: Improve the efficiency of supply chain processes while leveraging Australian national e-procurement recommendations.
Solution: Deploy GS1 standards for identifying, capturing and sharing information to support interaction with suppliers.
Benefits: Increased both the speed and the efficiency of its purchasing processes, underpinned the efficient operation of its hospitals and helped ensure the continuous delivery of quality healthcare.
¹ GS1 Reference Book 2016-2017
73%
Reduction in discrepancies
¹ EDI Implementation Kit 2016
72%
Reduction of waste
Implemented GS1 standardised unique barcode identification on medical devices used in the operating rooms, such as implants, and internal database with all information about the availability and location of medical devices.
Total value of stock/inventory of medical devices in the hospital’s financial statement €807,000:
< 1%
Waste
In order to resolve the challenge of managing products with 13 different types of barcodes, it implemented the use of GS1 standards (GTINs, batch and lot numbers, expiry date and, where needed, serialisation number) to identify all products at inner and outer packaging level.
¹ Case Studies GS1 UK 2015
More deliveries
Just In Time supply and facilitate automation of the internal transportation flow. GS1 standards (SSCC) support the flow of information from the warehouse to the point-of-care. The logistics centre’s warehouse consists of two entities: the central store (managing office supplies, hospital room supplies, groceries and non-sterile medical equipment) and the pharmacy (managing medication and sterile and implantable medical equipment).
¹ GS1 Reference Book 2011-2012
60%
Reduction of stocks
Using GS1 standards (GLN, GRAI, SSCC, GTIN), created a logistics platform for its warehouse that includes a traceability system.
£ 150m
Estimated reduction in waste each year
Better inventory management and reduction of product waste: by scanning GS1 barcodes, supply chains will be made simpler, helping to reduce the estimated £150m the NHS wastes each year.
¹ NHS eProcurement Strategy, 2014
