Dec 06, 2022Portugal's Hospital Distrital de Santarém (HDS Blood Bank) is among a handful of healthcare facilities worldwide that are leveraging a radio frequency identification (RFID) solution to automate blood product inventory management for both real-time data and analytics. The solution, provided by French technology firm Biolog-ID, consists of its RFID-enabled Transfusion Solution, as well as the company's Advanced Analytics Dashboards. The automated data is combined with information such as Rhesus factor (Rh) and blood group data, from the Blood Bank Management System, according to Amit Mayer, Biolog ID's innovation director.
Hospital Distrital de Santarém
HDS Blood Bank began piloting the technology in November 2020, and the final contract was signed in June 2021. Since then, the organization reports, the solution has improved visibility and control of the blood used for patient care in real time. However, it also provides long-term insights intended to help the hospital better stock and manage blood products over time. That means managers can use the data to understand trends related to how blood units are consumed, as well as adjust inventory accordingly.
HDS has 419 beds and is part of the Portuguese National Health Service, serving a population of approximately 200,000 people in central Portugal. The hospital's blood bank provides more than 6,000 blood transfusions annually, and it chose to adopt the RFID-based solution in late 2020 to provide a more automatic and reliable record of the movement of blood products throughout the hospital. The system consists of passive UHF RFID tags applied to each unit of blood, along with Biolog-ID's reader and antenna array in a dedicated blood storage refrigeration unit.
Monitoring Blood for Safety, Accuracy
"The incentive for the solution came from the need to improve our stock management," says João Moura, HDS Blood Bank's director. The blood bank wanted to have an automated view into each unit of blood before it was given to a patient, to not only improve patient safety but also prevent any unnecessary waste.
Amit Mayer
There are multiple challenges related to the storage and administering of red blood cells and platelets, the organization explains. For one thing, hospitals must store the product at appropriate temperatures and ensure that they are not stored for too long, since they have expiration dates based on when the blood was donated. They must also ensure the blood is not left outside of refrigeration units beyond authorized time periods. And there is the safety challenge around making sure the correct product always goes to the right patient.
"With blood," Mayer states, "you have variation in consumption, but you also have variations in supply that are very hard to predict." Sometimes, he says, gathering donations is more difficult to accomplish, or specific blood types may be unavailable. Demand varies unpredictably as well. Such variability creates a challenge for blood banks that they need to continuously address. "The level of complexity that our customers have to address, day in and day out, to offer care for their patients is very significant."
When the blood is onsite, the blood bank must ensure ever unit is stored under the proper conditions, and it must know the status of each unit and its expiry date. To accomplish this, hospitals are using software that is very sophisticated and depends on the manual entry of data, according to Philippe Jacquet, Biolog-ID's sales director for EMEA region. The manual entry could entail the scanning of a barcode, he explains, adding, "But someone needs to do it, and someone needs to remember to do it, and someone needs to take the time to do it." Biolog-ID's solution is designed to eliminate that manual effort.
How the System Works
João Moura
The solution can be used in two ways: In one scenario, the blood is manufactured by entities that use the Biolog-ID technology. Those manufacturing sites tag units of blood as they are packaged or labeled. Then, when those units arrive at a hospital, that facility would be able to read printed information off the label. They could also scan the RFID tag if they were equipped with a reader.
In the case of HDS Blood Bank, the tags are printed onsite, linked to the blood details in the software, and applied as the blood units are received. Clinicians then place the tagged blood bags in an RFID-enabled refrigerator. Data is read at that time and is then forwarded to the Biolog-ID software, in which it is linked to the product details, indicating when that specific unit of blood is being stored there.
The blood bank can use the software to pre-allocate a given unit to a particular patient. The software can then confirm which patient is receiving which type of blood. If the tagged blood bag is removed, the reader no longer captures that ID number, and the product's status is thus updated. The system tracks how long the product remains outside the cooler. In some cases, a patient only uses part of the bag of red blood cells, and the bag can then be returned to the refrigerator. If it has been outside for too long, however, an alert can be sent indicating that it can no longer be used on patients.
Real-time View Provides Analytics
The collected data enables the hospital to ensure the extra blood is not spoiled, and to look at averages over time, such as the typical number of patients who receive blood per unit. "So you can start analyzing patterns and behaviors, and you can compare one month to the previous and be more vigilant," Mayer says, "[thereby making sure] that you're utilizing your very scarce and very important resource in the best way possible." For instance, the dashboards can display trends related to how much of each kind of blood is being used, how much might have been lost, and under what circumstances, such as reaching an expiration date.
Philippe Jacquet
The technology is designed to enable a blood bank to transition "from a reactive mode to a proactive mode," Jacquet says. "You're not just looking at your inventory. You can proactively manage it, and that is making a huge difference in the way they address their inventory of blood." The software can be provided as a standalone cloud-based service, or it can be integrated into an existing management system. "We built a technological backbone that can work either completely independently or in various modes of collaboration with the existing software that they're using," Mayer states.
To date, Biolog-ID reports, most U.S.-based blood banks have been using the solution in the cloud, and a growing number of customers worldwide are transferring to that model. Since the technology was deployed, Moura says he sees the greatest value in three key areas: real-time information, traceability and reliability of data. "Using data analytics," he explains, "we're able to assess needs for improved communication between clinical services and the blood bank, for specific training on misuse of released [red blood cells], and for specific immunophenotype needs over time."
Moura says the organization continues to measure how the data can improve efficiency and reduce waste. "We are still evaluating," he notes, "but I can assure that the misuse, the waste due to validity times and the pattern of release of units have been improved… As we are starting with the collection procedures, we'd like to include the RFID solutions to the entire cycle of transfusion, from donor to patient."
Key Takeaways:
- While blood banks have been using RFID to track products for inventory visibility, Biolog-ID's solution provides analytics as well.
- With the analytics, hospitals like HDS can view usage trends and better plan inventory acquisition and usage to prevent waste.
