‘Centre of excellence’ status for dental institute

King’s College London Dental Institute has been recognised as the UK’s first Healthcare Centre of Excellence.

The award was granted in recognition of patient improvements achieved by implementing a bar-coded instrument ‘track-and-trace’ system.
 
Installed by GS1 UK solution provider Meditrax, King’s College London Dental Institute now has much more visibility over approximately 16,000 surgical instruments it uses every week.

By using a unique identification code for some pieces of equipment, staff are able to locate items quickly and easily.

With some specialist surgical tools costing hundreds of pounds to replace each time they are misplaced, it has also helped reduce costs significantly.
 
The Meditrax system also provides a traceable log of the sterilisation process, considerably speeding up the decontamination process.

Crucially, it also enhances patient safety by ensuring contaminated instruments are not reused or can be recalled if necessary.

Last year, GS1 UK identified that 26 days each year
(per nurse) and £1 billion of NHS nurses’ wages spent on
hunting for missing equipment

With access to up-to-date stock data levels at the top of medical staff’s priority list, the GS1 UK standards are helping to drive efficiency and patient safety in hospitals. Last year, GS1 UK identified that 26 days each year (per nurse) and £1 billion of NHS nurses’ wages spent on hunting for missing equipment.
 
Davisha Humzah, King’s College London Dental Institute’s acting operations manager, says: ‘We are delighted to have been awarded Centre of Excellence status.

‘We have adopted their standards and incorporated the technology within our practices, processes and culture, enabling us to work much smarter and enhance both our business efficiency and patient safety. All our staff have been trained on the system and understand the immediate benefits it brings to their work.’
 
King’s College London Dental Institute’s Centre of Excellence status now ensures it adheres to the Department of Health guidelines for the use of standards in the healthcare process.

This is designed to improve patient safety, reduce errors, save money through improved efficiency and improve the care and security of patients. It also helps to tackle counterfeit drugs and reduce the amount of stock ordering errors in the system.
 
Centre of Excellence status is only awarded against strict scoring criteria based on process, people, governance, strategy and technology. Passing the benchmark has enabled King’s College London Dental Institute to establish itself as a champion adopter of GS1 standards and a leader in healthcare innovation.
 
Roger Lamb, healthcare manager at GS1 UK, says: ‘King’s College London Dental Institute can now showcase the innovative application of GS1 standards and help to spread best practice in the healthcare sector. We hope this will be a catalyst for change for more hospitals to adopt this standard and are tremendously pleased to be able to award Centre of Excellence status to King’s College London Dental Institute today.’

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