Health Service Focus

Tracking & transforming

Stuart Penny, general manager for operations for NHS Blood & Transplant (NHSBT) in the south west, describes the exciting new pilot that could transform blood management across the health service.

Electronic tracking systems can improve accuracy and security of blood management, cutting unnecessary deliveries and inefficiency for NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT). A new programme aims to increase collaboration between NHSBT and the hospitals it works with, to facilitate more accurate data on levels of stock.

The Integrated Transfusion Service (ITS) is “a very innovative and exciting programme” led by NHSBT that could potentially transform the way blood management is carried out.

ITS focuses on stock management, transfusion innovation and supply chain optimisation and was developed following analysis with hospitals which found that integrating working practices with NHSBT could deliver improvements in a range of areas including quality, safety and efficiency.

NHE spoke to Stuart Penny, general manager for operations for NHSBT in the south west, about the launch of a new ITS pilot and its implications for the NHS.

Demand and supply

The programme looks at how NHSBT can link demand and supply together more effectively, from the point of blood donation to patients on the ward.

NHSBT will deliver information to four hospitals involved in the new pilot, detailing all necessary data about the new stock, including blood group, expiry date, and any special characteristics of the blood.

This is contained within a barcode which can be scanned to electronically cross check and ensure it matches the stock that was expected. This increases the accuracy of the data – which previously had to be typed in by hand, leaving the hospital open to human error.

Information will also be downloaded from the hospitals to NHSBT via an automated system to monitor stock levels and replenish them automatically to agreed target levels.

NHSBT will be able to follow the link from the donor to the patient, allowing them to see when the blood is issued and to which patient through the electronic feed.

The new system could also improve transport, so that, “maybe we’ll have less deliveries but more effective deliveries,” Penny said. “In that way we can make better use of the supply chain, perhaps also reduce wastage.”

This could affect management all the way back through to donations, giving NHSBT a better understanding of hospital stock levels, and therefore demand.

“We can feed that right back through to the collection side, so that will help us to target our collection more effectively,” Penny said. “We think that might enable us to make better use of the donor’s gift of blood.”

Aligning interfaces

The hospitals involved with the scheme each have their own laboratory information and blood tracking systems, which means that NHSBT must link into these different suppliers.

He said: “That will give the NHS a much better view, right across the supply chain through to the patient.

“We’re trying to make sure we can get the interfaces right between our systems, those tracking systems and the laboratory systems.

“Initially it is quite complicated to make sure we get those right, but we’ve had really good support from the hospitals and the suppliers of those other systems. Everyone sees this as a really exciting initiative and are keen to get involved.”

Discussing the challenges of such a complicated project, Penny said: “We’re working with multiple hospitals and suppliers of blood tracking systems; there are lots of partners involved in this so that introduces a level of complexity.”

From proof of concept to the wider NHS

The four pilots are at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, Blackpool Victoria Hospital, the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust, and Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust.

Penny explained: “We’ll be able to see the stock in those hospitals, we’ll get regular downloads and then we’ll be able to replenish on a regular basis.”

The Radcliffe hospital was a proof of concept study, which tested the technology before the pilot stage. The pilot results are due in April.

In addition to the four ‘active’ pilots, there are 10 desktop pilots, where NHSBT is taking data from hospitals and modelling how the system would work in those, giving “a better sense of it how it would operate across a bigger system within the NHS”.

“We’ll need to assess the results quite carefully to make sure we’re getting the benefits we expect to get – if we are getting those benefits, we would want to roll that out to as many hospitals as want to work with us,” Penny added.

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