HSE National Immunisation Office wins Best Use of Information Technology at IHCA 2022
The National Immunisation Office (NIO) was honoured to be awarded with Best Use of Information Technology at the Irish Healthcare Centre Awards (IHCA) 2022, which took place on Friday 13th May 2022.
The award recognises the hard work and commitment of all those involved in the development and implementation of mobile solutions ScanVax and TrackVax, supporting the safe and effective rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in Ireland.
To date, the software has managed over 4.5 million doses, for 5000 vaccinators, 50 locations, 60 service managers and most importantly, the whole population vaccinated at CVCs.
“During uncertain times particularly in the early days of the pandemic, the TrackVax project team challenged everything that was conventional and came up with an extremely smart solution to ensure vaccines reached as many people as possible in the shortest possible time, and in the safest possible way. Somebody said “We don’t remember the days, but rather the moments”. As I see the project being recognised, I’ll never forget that time when I watched for the first time TrackVax being used in the real world, a real label being printed and the entire vial's journey being tracked after weeks of very hard work”.
Mariangela Toma, Chief II Pharmacist, National Immunisation Office, HSE.
Data quality at each step of the vaccination process
As COVID-19 vaccines became available, the HSE required an efficient and effective way of receiving, administering, tracking and reporting vaccine doses (770K vaccine vials) across 43 Centralised Vaccination Clinics (CVCs).
It was important for the HSE’s National Immunisation Office (NIO) that each dose was used safely, within a short time span, recorded effectively, and that any exceptions were understood and managed.
The NIO collaborated with Pharmacists, ICT, operations, GS1 Ireland and National Cold Chain to create an efficient and reliable vaccine delivery service.
The challenge
To deliver a service that met the most significant demand in time to match the need.
The solution
ScanVax, to scan vaccine deliveries to the national vaccine system, and TrackVax, to keep track of vaccine stock and usage in CVCs.
The utilisation of software solutions ScanVax and TrackVax has provided excellent data quality to each step of the vaccination process – supporting the correct product selection, the correct batch selection and the correct expiry date information for each client, vaccinator and pharmacist at each vaccination point.
“From a medication safety perspective, the use of Trackvax across our vaccination centres really helps to standardise our workflow, ensuring vaccines are labelled clearly with all relevant details, which is so important when delivering a programme on such a big scale.”
Medication and Safety Specialist Pharmacist, HSE Quality and Patient Safety Directorate, Muriel Pate.
“TrackVax has had a phenomenal impact on the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme across Ireland’s CVCs. It has provided an efficient and effective solution to stock management and administering, tracking, reconciling and reporting vaccinations”.
Damon Gaffney, Lead Pharmacist Dublin & Midlands Hospital Group Vaccinations, HSE.
Speedy, reliable, accurate delivery of over 4.5 million doses
ScanVax has become a one stop solution for creating safe, reliable, local vaccine lists for vaccinators. TrackVax builds on the interface of ScanVax and enables, for the first nationally, an automated vaccine reconciliation process with a by-product of national stock level and loss reporting. The software has enabled the administration of over 4.5 million doses in a speedy, reliable, standardised and accurate manner.
Given the size of the vaccine rollout, reporting current vaccine stock across national CVCs to inform vaccine delivery automatically was a significant win.
"I was delighted to be part of an innovative solution for dispensing and tracking vaccine usage in CVC's. TrackVax enabled us to track which booths had vials and how long the vials were in use. As it evolved, we were able to do end of session reports to reconcile the usage with CoVax, track stock movements from CVC to outside units and complete stock takes."
Jane Anne O’Connor, Chief Pharmacist, Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital.
“To see an idea transform into a flexible working solution to improve medicine traceability and patient safety in such a short time was amazing”.
Joan Peppard, Chief I Pharmacist, HSE.
This page was added on 31 May 2022
