By Emma Lin on 28 June 2011

For more than 10 years, GS1 Taiwan has actively provided hospitals with advanced identification solutions, promoting GS1 standards of operating in key accounts. These key accounts include the National Taiwan University Hospital, Taiwan Veterans General Hospital as well as Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital. In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration of the Department of Health commissioned the Clinical Pharmacy Council of Taiwan and GS1 Taiwan to implement a plan for "Drug Safety and Control Efficiency of the Bar Code System Application".

Recently, the official Taiwan Hospital Accreditation System has adopted the implementation of GS1 standards as one of the important accredited criterions.

“Taiwan Healthcare Auto-Management Association” Launched

On 13 June, the Clinical Pharmacy Council of Taiwan and GS1 Taiwan officially formed the “Taiwan Healthcare Auto-Management Association.” This will definitely lead to an enhanced efficient system for Taiwan’s pharmaceutical management as well as patient safety. Representatives from the Department of Health mentioned that they hope to introduce the bar code system to identify automatically, the correct drugs, reduce medication errors, and provide national hospitals with a follow-up reference of the promotion.

In a keynote speech, Ms. Su-yu, Jian, Senior consultant of Clinical Pharmacy Council of Taiwan, said that in hospitals, personalized treatments were prepared in the pharmacy or ward. These were then administered by nurses to the patients. She said that they encouraged the adoption and harmonization of GS1 Standards in Taiwan as this would enable the effective and efficient implementation of bar codes on all packages of drugs.

Director of Business, Service Division, GS1 Taiwan, Johnson Hu, said that it was the absolute global trend to lever GS1 standards on hospital acquired conditions. He also said that European, on-going track and trace systems for medicines, such as GS1 standards, GTIN, GLN and ECPIS, have been used to ensure interoperability, successfully.

The ‘Taiwan Healthcare Auto-Management Association’ will advocate the importance of GS1 standards in this era and help Taiwan’s healthcare industry with a more rapid integration of existing system resources, reduce operating costs, and enhance overall supply chain management, efficiency.

Key Hospital pharmacies in Taiwan said “we are ready!”

At the launching ceremony, eight representatives from the Hospital Authority, two industry associations and six pharmacy manufacturers showed confidence in the international trends in healthcare management. They were also confident of the advantages of using GS1 Standards to improve patient safety.
 

Over 200 participants attended this conference to play a role in further shaping the work done. At the case study sharing section, Ms. Chih-Fen Huang, Chief of Pharmaceuticals, at the National Taiwan University Hospital(NTUH) said that, based on their experience, the NTUH endorsed the GS1 Standards as the preferred method for drug safety and control efficiency.

During the open discussions, professional representatives from related parties were eager to speed up the progress and proposed to develop one common automated identification standard, as well as a national environment for its implementation.
Alex Hsu, Director of Business Development, GS1 Taiwan, concluded by saying that, they would work together, to grasp and understand the international trends as well as the needs of the Taiwanese healthcare industry.
 

For more information, please contact Ms. Christy Chen, Marketing Development , GS1 Taiwan; Email: Christy.chen@gs1tw.org.