Olympus UK has celebrated the successful implementation of the first UK ‘remote allocation’ blood issuing system at Abergele Hospital, part of the North Wales NHS Trust. The new system uses BloodTrack OnDemand from Olympus, which enables staff to access and monitor blood stocks through remote computer access and intelligent blood storage refrigerators.
BloodTrack OnDemand is the world’s most advanced blood dispensing system, allowing unallocated blood to be stored outside the blood bank. When blood is required, it is automatically and safely dispensed, assigned and labelled at the refrigerator (HemoSafe and HemoNine) without involving the blood bank.
At Abergele Hospital, the installation of BloodTrack OnDemand has made an immediate impact, with dramatically decreased blood inventory and significant savings in staff time. Before OnDemand, visits from a biomedical scientist based five miles away at the Glan Clwyd site were necessary up to three times a week to check blood stocks. This has now been reduced to just one visit a week. Additionally, more blood is available on-site should urgent transfusion be required, without the delay of transporting additional units from the main blood bank, which is a more flexible approach to the supply of blood in large hospitals and rural communities.
www.olympus.co.uk/diagnostics