In order to apply uniformly Vietnam national standards on GS1 numbers & bar codes which are conformity with international standard organizations ISO and GS1 in healthcare sector in Vietnam, on December 21st 2016 in Hanoi, GS1 and STAMEQ co-operated to host the workshop on GS1 numbers & bar codes application in healthcare sector.
To open the workshop, Mr. Nguyen Nam Hai – STAMEQ Deputy Director – said: “Nowadays in the world, there are important errors during treatments at hospital or healthcare centers especially when information on patients and their drugs is misunderstood. That is one reason why healthcare sector interests in studying, implementing some news technologies such as automatic identification and data capture via bar codes, electronic product code together with information technology to solve the issues for patients’ safety.
At present in Vietnam, numbers & bar codes systems in hospitals are not unique and could not be compatible because they are internal systems only while the numbers & bar codes should be unique & harmonized complying with Vietnam national standards in accordant with international standards of ISO and GS1, so that each subject (patient, drug, medical device etc.) can be efficiently identified, traceable for patients’ safety.
When same identification numbers is used, information on patients, drugs and logistics inside and outside hospitals will be harmonized enabling patients’ information exchangeable between national and international hospitals, supporting hospital management and patients not to suffer from repeated tests, complying with global integration trend.
Mr. Hai expressed his emotion that the Workshop will enable the participants to acknowledge GS1 solutions and standards in healthcare sector as well as to implement uniformly Vietnam national standards on GS1 numbers & bar codes into the field in the whole country.
Then Ms. Tania – GS1 Healthcare Director introduced GS1 Healthcare as a global work effort; the business cases for global standards in healthcare; healthcare specific business processes and issues where GS1 standards assist; some current GS1 standards implementations – country and regional both regulatory and trading partner driven; hospitals, wholesalers and suppliers using GS1 standards – case studies and ROI; GS1 Healthcare’s main priorities; the fact of healthcare supply chain; international healthcare leaders using GS1 standards etc.
GS1 Vietnam – under STAMEQ – joined GS1 since 1995. At present, there are about 20 000 members using GS1 numbers & bar codes covering 12 fields such as in pharmaceutical for drugs managements, in transportation for electronic toll collection, in archives for documents management, in trade for trade items traceability and management etc.