The inte­gra­tion of an advanced spec­i­men col­lec­tion and pro­cess­ing through the eCol­lect and paper­less project has brought about a remark­able trans­for­ma­tion in our col­lec­tions and cen­tral spec­i­men recep­tion (CSR) process­es, yield­ing wide-rang­ing improve­ments and bet­ter deliv­ery of patient care in inpa­tients through­out the South East­ern Syd­ney and Illawar­ra Shoal­haven Hospitals.

The imple­men­ta­tion of this project, cen­tred around tablet devices and bar­code scan­ners, has reformed the speed and effi­cien­cy with which inpa­tient spec­i­mens are man­aged. Notably, the improved turn­around time of spec­i­mens from inpa­tients, and decreased CSR data entry delays has been a sig­nif­i­cant achieve­ment of our project.

The East team worked col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly, engag­ing key stake­hold­ers includ­ing clin­i­cians, nurs­es, blood col­lec­tors, lab­o­ra­to­ry staff, oper­a­tions man­agers, busi­ness devel­op­ment pro­fes­sion­als, finance depart­ment, and clin­i­cal ICT teams. This cross-func­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion show­cas­es the pow­er of inno­va­tion, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and tech­nol­o­gy in dri­ving sub­stan­tial enhance­ments in health­care deliv­ery. By har­ness­ing the poten­tial of the eCol­lect and paper­less sys­tem, we have paved the way for a more effi­cient, accu­rate, and patient-cen­tric approach to spec­i­men col­lec­tion and man­age­ment, set­ting new stan­dards for health­care excel­lence in the region that was fit-for-pur­pose for every­one involved in deliv­er­ing tru­ly con­nect­ed care to their patients.