Why use pre-barcoded tubes?

Why is Healthcare in Crisis?

Why is healthcare struggling? Since Covid-19 changed our lives forever, starting with our standard vocabulary and casual everyday conversations about PCR testing, to how we work, making remote office the new normal, many people have rethought their priorities in life.

Stress is no longer accepted as a norm of working routine. Quality of life is worth a lot more. This has had a strong influence on the medical sector, with healthcare workers fleeing from a job that was making them ill. Since 2020 1 in 5 US healthcare workers have left their jobs and it does not seem that this trend is coming to an end.

This mass exodus means a reduction in healthcare workers per patient, putting patients at risk but also increasing the stress level for the colleagues still in the industry, and stress can lead to errors. Burnout of staff is indeed also reported to be a significant cause of errors and malpractice. ^[1]. 

What can be done to make routine healthcare less prone to error and more efficient? One word: Digitalization.

The History Behind Barcodes

Barcodes were originally patented in the 1940s, but only came into mainstream use in the 1970s, when the “Universal Product Code” became a standard in retail use in the USA. Since then, the use of barcodes has grown globally across a range of industries, with the potential for efficiency and error reduction making massive changes in daily life.

“The barcode has revolutionised the NHS, saving thousands of lives and a projected £1bn over seven years. Barcodes uniquely identify every person, product and place – helping to enhance patient safety, reduce unwarranted clinical variation and improve operational efficiencies." ^[2] 

How Does Digitalization Impact Workload in Healthcare?

For the frontline worker facing a heavy workload on a daily basis, night and day, digital support means:

• Saving time on printing
  Request forms and barcode labels no longer need to be manually printed out. This not only saves on the manual work, but also saves on paper and printer ink within a facility.

• Avoids errors labelling
  A pre-barcoded tube no longer needs to be manually labelled. This not only saves time by cutting out manual steps, it ensures that the barcode label is always in the correct position on the tube, preventing possible rejection in the lab.

• Enables guidance
  When pre-barcoded tubes are used as part of a digital software solution, the software can offer support during the blood collection process, by advising on correct order of draw, which tubes are needed and even if the tube is past the expiry date. Furthermore, time stamp and phlebotomist identity is automatically recorded.

^[1] Patel RS, Bachu R, Adikey A, Malik M, Shah M. Factors Related to Physician Burnout and Its Consequences: A Review. Behav Sci (Basel). 2018 Oct 25;8(11):98. doi: 10.3390/bs8110098. PMID: 30366419; PMCID: PMC6262585.

^[2] GS1 UK | 40 years of the barcode