An ineffective recall process for contaminated blood plasma medication for hemophilia led the National Centre for Inherited Blood Disorders of St. James Hospital in Ireland to adopt GS1 Standards as part of their initiative to improve patient safety. This action enabled full traceability of these medications and the patients who received them.

Results:

• Over 5 million euros worth of medication stock was removed from the supply chain.
• Product wastage amounting to 90,216 euros was eliminated within one year of implementing the GS1 System.
• Document errors were reduced to zero within one year of system implementation.
• Medication and location identification were achieved at a 100% rate within 10 minutes during a trial plasma recall.

The Robert Ballanger Hospital in France implemented GS1 standards for the identification and traceability of surgical instruments from the patient to the sterilization process.

Results:

• Strong traceability of surgical instruments down to the level of the patients they were used on.
• Ability to use instruments from other hospitals, manage them from the same facilities, and accurately return them to each hospital separately.
• Nursing staff regained all their time for patient care as surgical instruments can be reprocessed by non-nursing personnel.
• Errors in surgical instrument compositions reduced from 8% to 0%.

Gelre Hospitals have upgraded their internal systems to take advantage of new technologies in combination with GS1 Standards.

Results:

• Reduction of medication distribution errors by 74%.

Bernhoven Hospital in the Netherlands has leveraged GS1 barcodes applied by suppliers to medical devices to better manage potential product recalls, improve inventory management, and reduce manual registration and control processes.

Results:

• Traceability of medical devices used in operating rooms increased to 100%.
• Excess inventory decreased by 31%.
• The total value of immediately available inventory decreased by 23%.
• Interest owed on hospital inventory decreased by €2,517 based on inventory liquidation.
• Losses decreased by 72%.

Portsmouth hospitals, part of the United Kingdom's National Health Service, recognizing the need for better inventory management, utilized GS1 Standards. This contributed, among other things, to reducing losses, saving resources, and improving patient care.

Results:

• Achieved a Return on Investment (R.O.I. Ratio) of 8.5:1.
• Immediately available inventory decreased by 20%.
• Hospital losses reduced to less than 1%.

The University Hospital of Dijon has taken measures to ensure greater safety and efficiency in its supply chain by implementing GS1 Standards. This has resulted in improved distribution of pharmaceutical products from the warehouse to the patient.

Results:

• Warehouse efficiency increased by 40%.
• Storage capacity in care units increased by 30%.
• Obsolete products have been reduced by 80%.
• Immediate inventory availability decreased by 60%.