What do I do if my suppliers tell me I don’t need to use GS1 standards?

If you want GS1 standards implemented in your hospital to help ensure patient safety, improve quality of care, return time to clinical staff to spend with patients or gain overall process efficiencies, you need to persist. GS1 Member Organisations have material to support your request for standards.

The overall international trend is a move towards GS1 standards as the global healthcare supply chain understands the benefits of working towards one global standard, with more and more countries moving to GS1 and more than 65 Regulatory agencies / jurisdictions accepting or requiring use of GS1 standards for example, USA, European Union, Brazil, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

This means that a decision to not use GS1 standards will be out of step with the rest of industry and it is very important that you understand the current status within your environment.  You may wish to gather information about the capabilities your suppliers do have.  For example, this may involve determining the percentage of GS1 barcodes on the products moving through your hospital, or understanding capabilities regarding product data (i.e., the GS1 Global Data Synchronisation Network, GDSN).

Your GS1 Member Organisation will be able to assist with this information gathering.

Overall experience shows that most suppliers are willing to work with the request to have GS1 barcodes - often they need some training and if they are small they may not have received this request before, although this is less common now as GS1 compliance becomes a requirement in many counties and hospitals.