10 min.
June 18, 2024
Barcodes strengthen patient safety
Text:
Casper Hindse
Photo:
Andreas Bang
Regional Hospital Gødstrup opened in 2022 with advanced technology where standardization and patient safety go hand in hand.
- We are entering a new technological era with the new hospital in Gødstrup, says Hospital Director Poul Michaelsen.
The surgical ward and the sterile center are hundreds of meters apart, but the investment in the new sterile flow ensures that the flow still works optimally.
As a new feature, each instrument is labeled with a barcode, providing full visibility of location and cleaning.
- The system can calculate when the instruments should enter the operating room to ensure a smooth flow. Until now, this was done via phone calls and calculations, but the new system frees up time so that staff can concentrate on other things, emphasizes Poul Michaelsen.
The physical distance is long, but the digital distance has become shorter. The more knowledge you have about each instrument, the easier it is to make the right choice. Susanne Raakilde Jakobsen, department nurse at the sterilization center, experiences this:
- This is a benefit for staff because it minimizes errors and significantly increases safety.
At the same time, it's a great help for new employees because the system tells them what the instrument is and how to handle it.
Patient safety at the forefront
In the delivery area, the new technology begins its journey around the hospital, ensuring optimal hygiene, or as the staff call it: reprocessing. In the future, once the operating rooms have been used, the used instruments will end up here. Everything is scanned by a computer with a hand scanner. Each instrument has a unique barcode that helps provide a real-time picture, allowing staff to complete tasks in the optimal order and make the best decisions in a hectic workday.
- First and foremost, patient safety is paramount, but of course it's also about time and money," says Susanne Raakilde Jakobsen:
- With the new system, we can trace far back, so we can see where a process may have gone wrong and make sure it doesn't happen again. Or we can rule out that the reprocessing process is causing an infection in the patient.
In the delivery area, the new technology begins its journey around the hospital, ensuring optimal hygiene, or as the staff call it: reprocessing. In the future, once the operating rooms have been used, the used instruments will end up here. Everything is scanned by a computer with a hand scanner. Each instrument has a unique barcode that helps provide a real-time picture, allowing staff to complete tasks in the optimal order and make the best decisions in a hectic workday.
- First and foremost, patient safety is paramount, but of course it's also about time and money," says Susanne Raakilde Jakobsen:
- With the new system, we can trace far back, so we can see where a process may have gone wrong and make sure it doesn't happen again. Or we can rule out that the reprocessing process is causing an infection in the patient.
GS1's standards
After scanning in the delivery room, the instruments are sent for washing in the hospital's huge, tiered washing machines. At the bottom of the large machine is a small barcode. This is scanned so that the codes can be compared with the instruments that have been sent for washing.
- If someone forgets to scan in along the way, we can easily go back in the process and register where they skipped," explains social and healthcare assistant Gitte Hove.
After an hour of washing and 15 minutes of cooling, the instruments are scanned again to ensure proper sealing.
- "We need standardization to avoid mistakes. It's about both patient safety and efficiency," says Poul Michaelsen.
GS1 standards are used as the basis for the labeling at Regionshospitalet Gødstrup.
- We need standardization to avoid errors. It's about both patient safety and efficiency. If the system doesn't have a flow, you get poor quality. Therefore, we must ensure that digitization is so precise that patient safety is top notch. GS1 is a crucial help here," says Poul Michaelsen.
A sterile pressure cooker
Once the instruments have cooled down, they are packed in boxes with red lids and provided with a barcode. This ensures that the instrument sets contain the right instruments and that they are prepared so that the product delivered with a barcode matches the exact content and quality required for the operations.
- Here we have a good example of how the process is constantly secured," says Gitte Hove.
- If not scanned in everywhere along the way, we can't be allowed to print labels and the process more or less stops.
To minimize the risk of infection, the instruments are packed in a room where the amount of impurities is minimized to ensure no infections and other disease transmission to the patients being operated on. They are then sterilized in an autoclave, a pressure cooker-like machine that removes viruses and bacteria. Once the process is complete, the autoclave confirms that sterility requirements have been met.
Fewer cancellations
Before materials reach the packing room, staff must pass through human-like airlocks with different air pressures to ensure sterility. In the packing room, each part is scanned and packed according to the system's instructions before the sterilized instruments are stored in the sterile depot until needed.
- It is not possible to book the instruments if they are not ready, so patients do not get to the operating table until everything is ready. Until now, the instruments have sometimes not been fully sterilized even if the patient had shown up for the surgery, but the new system will reduce cancellations, says Susanne Raakilde Jakobsen.
Many instruments are not born with barcodes and still need to be labeled manually with GS1 barcodes, which requires extra time.
- It depends a lot on the material and the size of the instruments whether they are easy to scan," says Gitte Hove.
- Ease of scanning depends on the material and size of the instruments. There are also many places where barcodes can hide. The advantage is still that the barcodes do the work we have had to do in our heads until now.
