South West London Pathology (SWLP) Accreditation - Video Transcript

Haval Ozgun, POCT Manager & Network Lead, SWLP

I am Haval Ozgun, I am the Point Of Care Testing Manager at South West London Pathology.

Having set up an established point of care department, we started thinking about accreditation in 2019.

The aim was to maximise patient safety and improve patient outcomes.

We wanted our clinicians to have complete confidence in the services we provide for our patients.

We went from a team of one in 2018 to becoming one of the largest point of care departments in the country.

One of the first exercises we undertook was a tender for the largest point of care service, and that was blood gas, and Radiometer had the perfect device for us.

The total solution they offered us included an analyser with the ideal features. An IT connectivity platform that facilitated the electronic availability of results for the clinicians and a high standard of customer technical and engineering support.

We had our first assessment in December 2020 and were fully accredited in 2021.

Simon Brewer, Managing Director, SWLP

It's made a big difference, it allows standardization and optimisation, it allows us to make real time decisions and have the confidence in that. The results are visible and available to the end users.

It's helped with our ability to be nimble, and respond, and grow, and I think that those are big, important factors. Having a robust, and a firm, and a safe service, and a quality service that's recognized externally definitely allows us to be able to build with confidence.

Haval Ozgun, POCT Manager & Network Lead, SWLP

It started by having the right partnership. Radiometer had the right device for us that met all our clinical requirements and had lots of safety features.

Simon Brewer, Managing Director, SWLP

We have a core value in South West London of making every test matter, and I think that fits well with Radiometer, their mission to help caregivers make diagnostic decisions that saves lives.

Haval Ozgun, POCT Manager & Network Lead, SWLP

Radiometer helped from installation of the analysers, to training and the ongoing support was a big factor in achieving accreditation. We placed a significant emphasis on training from the start.

Point of care analysers are designed to be used by non-laboratory staff outside the laboratory.

It was therefore important that all users received a high level of training and were fully competent

in using the analyser and in obtaining clinically reliable results.

As well as improving our service, we’ve managed to save costs by bringing all our contracts together.

There were three different types of analysers being used across South West London, we harmonized to one, and that in itself had great benefits for the patients.

IT connectivity and integration with electronic patient records, were a high priority for us. Radiometer’s AQURE middleware system is very good and has met our needs. It's enabled us to easily connect our point of care analysers, and interface them with the patient's electronic records, but also the ongoing

monitoring of our analysers.

Electronic availability of the results was a big advantage of having AQURE. Our clinicians were very pleased. As an accredited POCT service. South West London Pathology can give the wider clinical community complete confidence in our service, not just in terms of patient safety and patient outcomes, but it increases the clinicians confidence in the service we provide for them, and it also helps us with our future expansion and business development plans.

Simon Brewer, Managing Director, SWLP

We are very proud of our point of care testing team, what they have achieved and how much work they're doing.

It definitely is impacting the services we deliver.

We've been a HSJ finalist twice in recent years, along with our AED departments. Where we've got to isn't the end, it's the beginning, and I think that really excites us.

Haval Ozgun, POCT Manager & Network Lead, SWLP

Our future plans of the service is to expand into primary care we’re setting up diagnostics in community diagnostic centers, in virtual wards programs, NHS health checks, outreach clinics.

We would want to extend the same level of governance, quality of service into the primary care setting.