Ryan Mavin, from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government is part of a team that has developed a standards framework that is one of the foundations for better outcomes for patients and sustainable healthcare services.

Focussed at The Canberra Hospital in ACT, a Location-Based Services steering committee, with representatives from across the hospital, has been created. Part of the remit of this committee is to implement GS1 standards for automatic identification, data capture and data sharing across hospital processes and systems. According to Mavin “there is synergy in the collaboration of both people and systems.”

Compliance with the framework for new initiatives is mandatory. “If a product is not part of the solution, it is part of the problem,” said Mavin. The standards, governance and guidelines, upon which the framework is built, have created the foundation for interoperability and traceability.

The anticipated benefits of the framework include:
• Accurate activity-based costing of patient care
• Reduction in current spending levels
• No procedures delayed due to supply issues
• Interoperability and reduced integration costs
• 100 percent real-time product recall notifications
• Elimination of avoidable waste and a reduction in products wasted or unused across the public health sector
• Zero incidents of incorrect blood samples in tubes

Learn more about the ACT Health standards framework and the organisation’s work to improve patient safety here.