SANBS launches new blood delivery service

The transport of blood and blood products was the responsibility of hospitals and independent companies hired by the hospitals.

Unfortunately the quality standards and cold chain were not adhered to in a number of areas and in some instances patients were billed incorrectly.

SANBS was approached by various role players to design and implement a cost effective transport system in view of the current exploitation by some service providers.

Meetings were held with the various hospital groups, medical schemes and other stakeholders to design a cost effective value adding solution. After extensive investigation a solution to ensure cost effective, quality service delivery was proposed and accepted. The implementation date was June 1, 2007.

Roll out of new system

The new system was rolled out nationally on June 1, 2007. In April and May SANBS COO Mr Ravi Reddy, Supply Chain Manager, Jan Scholtz and the Technical management team discussed the finer details of the system to all the stakeholders.

Presentations were made to the major medical aids such as Discovery Health, Sovereign Health, Qualsa, Old Mutual and Bestmed.

Courier companies were appointed to service the various geographical regions and the proposal was generally well received, especially by the Medical Aid schemes and Private Hospital groups.
Letters were sent out to all the stakeholders informing them of the new system. The roll out of Blood on a Returnable basis has also been implemented on a limited basis to specific wards in hospitals where wastage is generally experienced.
The system has now been operational for just over two months and is working well.

Some Key Features of the new system

•Temperature monitoring devices in validated containers are used for the transportation of blood – ensures that the cold chain is maintained and monitored throughout the process.
•Real time monitoring of requests for blood is implemented to ensure that the status of the order can be tracked at any given time.
•Blood will be transported in a uniform manner by all couriers and only accredited couriers will transport blood.
•Tracking of all requests through bar code scanning is done real time.

Value add to Patients and Hospitals

•On time delivery of each request – this is monitored from collection to delivery and exception reports can be generated to monitor non-conformance.
•One call centre number (08600 BLOOD) for any enquiries.
•A central point of collection and delivery of blood requests.
•Standardised billing to the patient is done by SANBS. One fee for routine delivery and one fee for emergency delivery.
•SANBS pays the couriers and tracking company for the services rendered.

System

•Management information will be available real time on the internet and can be accessed by Hospital personnel or Medical Aid schemes.
•Customised management information reports for all role players will be available daily, weekly and monthly e.g.
–Abuse of emergency blood ordering
–Excess blood usage
–Hospital ordering patterns
–Response times to emergency calls

Panelists:
CEO: Dr Loyiso Mpuntsha
011) 761-9112 or 082 555 9330
COO: Ravi Reddy
(011) 761-9124
or 083 231 3306