Why is Blood Bag Tracking Necessary?
In many hospitals across the world, the tracking and documentation of blood bags are inherently difficult processes. Blood bags are typically stored in fridges and cooling chambers in central areas of the hospital such as the Emergency Department. When transfusion becomes necessary during a surgery, one or many blood bags are brought to the operating room quickly and often are used in life-saving procedures. The danger and risk are high for both the patient and hospital.
Due to the often frantic nature of the usage of blood bags, the required documentation isn’t always properly completed. Nurses are correctly concerned with the goal of quickly getting blood to patients in need, but this often comes at the expense of quality documentation that ensures all regulatory requirements are met by the hospital. Mobile Aspects’ iRISecure – Blood Tracking solution, which is a powerful, simple-to-use RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tracking solution for blood inventory, automates the documentation surrounding the storage and use of blood. The system helps to improve patient safety and inventory management of blood products and ensures the safe and timely delivery of blood transfusions to patients.
Benefits of a Blood Tracking System
iRISecure Blood was designed to bring many patient safety and financial benefits to hospitals. The system focuses on the documentation and inventory management aspects of blood bags, which can have numerous benefits to customers:
Increased Patient Safety
With iRISecure – Blood Tracking, hospitals can increase patient safety by ensuring that the right blood is given to the right patient every time. The software includes the following features that improve patient safety:
- Real-time alerts are sent by iRISecure – Blood Tracking to ensure that mismatches between patients and blood types do not occur.
- Built-in RFID technology reduces mis-labeling issues by eliminating poorly inputted data from manual data entry.
- Re-issue data tracking to make sure blood stays within guidelines when removed and returned from storage.
Improved Inventory Control
iRISecure – Blood Tracking provides a real-time view of blood inventory to all areas of the hospital. Having a fully visible and accurate inventory helps improve the management of blood and decreases waste. The software includes the following features that improve inventory control:
- A complete inventory management system that lets you know when it is time to re-order blood products.
- Advanced analytics that help to prevent stock-outs by adjusting inventory levels according to actual usage history.
- Web-based platform that allows you to locate required blood in an instant.
- Real-time, automated expiration reports that allow you to monitor the expiration of blood and components.
Eliminate Manual Processes
Using RFID technology, iRISecure – Blood Tracking simplifies the record-keeping of blood in accordance with AABB and FDA regulations. iRISecure – Blood Tracking can:
- Meet traceability requirements by capturing all item-level blood details and associating blood to the correct patient.
- Automatically record the dispensation of blood on the patient’s electronic medical record (EMR) via electronic messages.
- Reduce employee documentation requirements while increasing patient safety by enforcing a standard workflow.
Robust Analytics
The data captured by iRISecure –- Blood Tracking allows the system to generate reports and analytics which will allow your blood management process to continuously improve over time. Some examples of the insights include:
- Measuring frequently used blood products and providing recommendations on changing stock levels based on actual usage data.
- Expiration reports that measure how frequently blood products are expiring before usage.
- Tracking the average time it takes for blood to go from one checkpoint to another using the timestamp data automatically collected by the system.
- Holding employees accountable by tracking which employees are following the standard workflows and which are not.
Seamless EMR AND HIS Integration
iRISecure – Blood Tracking integrates directly with the hospital’s EMR, laboratory information system and other hospital information systems (HIS). This allows for the real-time, effortless documentation of blood without manual entry. Mobile Aspects will customize its interfaces to match any hospital’s systems and all data will be protected by your hospital’s security system to ensure patient information is safe.
Reduced Cost And Less Waste
The costs to a healthcare institution can be severe whenever the wrong blood type is delivered to a patient. iRISecure – Blood Tracking performs periodic safety checks to ensure that the right blood reaches the right patient every time. The system also includes a comprehensive inventory management system to make sure that the proper blood types are always kept in stock and replenished as needed. Overall, iRISecure – Blood Tracking will help reduce inventory costs and increase staff efficiency and productivity by automating many of the manual tasks around blood storage and dispensation. For more information, sign up for a free virtual demo by visiting HERE.