This procurement is for the provision of an Electronic Blood Tracking System to be deployed at North Bristol NHS Trust.

A key driver for the procurement of an electronic system is to achieve high standards in the supply of Blood stock throughout the Trust, from refrigerators to the patient bedside and in turn reduce the level of risk of patient exposure to harm.

The system must be an “on-premise” implementation and must be market ready, available “off the shelf”. This tender is not a software development opportunity.

An overview of the core requirements is provided below:

— the Electronic Blood Tracking System solution offered must be an “on-premise” implementation.

— a secure computerised system that ensures only authorised staff are able to access the system,

— electronic storage controls to ensure only authorised staff are able to access blood stock,

— facilitates ‘cross-matching’ issue of blood components,

— provides and maintains a complete audit trail of blood stock throughout the Trust through to final disposal,

— an enquiries module to allow non-laboratory users access to all blood transfusion related information. Including blood component availability, blood component location, blood sample validity and patient requirements,

— an alert to the clinical area when blood is available for collection via cross-matched blood in the blood fridge,

— patient identification at the Bedside (a bar-coded blood unit matched with a patient’s bar-coded wristband),

— a reporting package to enable accurate costing of use and wastage,

— support individually identified products (e.g. Red Cells, Platelets) and Batch Products (e.g. HAS, Anti-D, ivIg, PCC with the ability to add new products as they become available),

— ability to utilise a simple blood tracking system for units transfused at external sites without blood tracking. With the minimum of start time of transfusion,

— ability to indicate, at ward level, whether the patient is available for electronic issue of blood and if so, when and from where blood is available for collection,

— staff involved in the blood administration process will require training, including staff whose only involvement will be to collect blood and transport it to the wards. As part of this procurement process the Bidder will be required to support the Trust in the delivery of system training.

An overview of the optional requirements is provided below:

— facilitate remote Allocation (Issue) whereby a blood component is allocated to and a labelled for a specific patient,

— sample labelling,

— an alert to the clinical area when blood is available for collection via remote allocation (issue) in the blood fridge,

— ability to read and use QR code 2D barcodes.