Case study: management systems

Better laboratory management for Newcastle hospitals with new inventory system

The laboratory provides biochemistry and biochemical analytical services to three hospitals — the Freeman, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle General Hospital — and the Centre for Life in central Newcastle. Services include specialist testing and the department also receives national referrals from other hospital trusts. For example, the laboratory performs newborn screening and maternal serum screening services.

The StockTraxx system is used to manage reagents. In such a busy laboratory, managing and maintaining inventories is crucial to smooth running and cost management. No laboratory wants money tied up in excess stocks, nor do they want to wait for essential chemicals or equipment when there are important tests to perform.

Helen Warlow is the clinical biochemistry laboratory manager for the Newcastle Hospitals Foundation Trust and has first hand experience of implementing measures to boost efficiency within her department. “We needed a system that would improve stock management and that would give us greater financial control,” said Helen. “We didn’t want to hold vast stocks of reagents and this system allows us to operate a just-in-time ordering procedure.

"StockTraxx provided a link from the laboratory stock system to Finance. It is flexible and powerful and has been far more useful than we ever envisaged. Not only has it led to greater efficiency when managing our laboratory consumables and equipment, it has enabled us to consolidate purchasing across the sites, giving us greater bargaining power with our suppliers. It has also enabled us to make substantial savings through organised bulk buying.

StockTraxx makes things transparent, enabling us to gain much greater control of costs and helping us to manage our purchasing,” she added.

The system is PC-based, was written using Microsoft’s SQL server and uses a browser interface which staff have found very easy to use. Information is simply input and retrieved using a standard PC keyboard.