This news story relates to Qube Global Software, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release.
Qube Global Software held its first NHS User Forum of 2016. In partnership with Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital London – longstanding users of our Qube Planet FM solution – NHS users from across the country came together to exchange best practices and learn how FM services are managed across Qube Global Software’s 67 NHS Trust clients. The forum was largely centered on the impact of the Carter Report on their future operations, which sets out cost reduction and efficiency goals for Acute Trusts over the next five years.
GS1
The day began with Qube Planet Development Director, Mike Bennett, leading a discussion on GS1’s new statutory requirements, and how Qube Planet enables NHS Trusts to comply with these standards.
GS1 is a non-profit organisation responsible for setting the standards NHS Trusts will use for procurement, catalogue management, asset tracking, patient identification, and medical equipment management. GS1 has been providing barcode standardisation in retail and logistics for over 30 years, and is now expanding into healthcare. By 2020, all services and products procured by NHS Acute Trusts must comply with GS1 standards.
This standard includes labelling items with a Global Location Number (GLN), a location barcode that can be associated with rooms, equipment, patients, stock, etc. In short, GS1 standards will allow NHS Trusts to identify every person, every product, and every place, allowing them to manage resources more effectively.
We are proud to announce our Qube Planet software incorporates GS1 standards across all modules, ensuring Trusts using Qube Planet are compliant with the upcoming standards.
Space Management and Utilisation
The Forum also highlighted the demands from the Department of Health (DOH) to better utilise space. This means Trusts have to review data to ensure optimum set up of rooms and minimise empty space. With collective building occupancy costs of around £32 billion, the NHS stands to save millions of pounds by managing space more effectively.
Qube Global Software partners, Smartway2, provide resource booking software that allows for more effective management of desks, meeting rooms, and their respective schedules. In addition, Qube Planet includes functionality for office and desk booking, ensuring Trusts utilise available space effectively and identify where they can reduce occupied space.
Patient Transfer and Portering
The day continued with an emphasis on how software can assist with effectively managing porters and patient transport. Qube Planet is configured to include both porter and patient information simultaneously. Details such as patient location, job, and specialist needs are all entered and recorded in the software.
Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM)
Another prominent feature of the NHS forum was improving Planned and Preventative Maintenance (PPM) compliance in hospitals using SFG20 in Qube Planet. SFG20 is the definitive standard for planned maintenance.
One section of the PPM is the statutory testing of Legionella which is made easier with Qube Planet Measurable Conditions. Zetasafe, a Qube Global Software partner, spoke about the importance of compliance, and how their integrations with Qube Planet can help meet Government standards with ease. Zetasafe provide Trusts with the peace of mind that they are compliant with water hygiene/legionella, emergency lighting, fire safety, security, gas and electrical safety, and asbestos standards.
Qube Global Software will be holding more events in the future to empower NHS clients and enable them to improve their FM operations with Qube Planet.
