As COVID-19 vaccines became available, Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) needed an efficient and effective way of receiving, administering, tracking and reporting vaccinations across its more than 40 Centralised Vaccination Clinics (CVCs). It was important for the HSE’s National Immunisation Office (NIO) that no dose was wasted and that batches of vaccine could be tracked to the point of vaccination.
The HSE in collaboration with GS1 Ireland adopted a GS1 standards-based approach for the identification and tracking of vaccines to the point of vaccination. Following an intensive design phase with the HSE project team, two software applications were developed: ScanVax and TrackVax. ScanVax was installed on over 1,000 PCs across the country to allow for the receipt of vaccines. By scanning the barcode on each of the vaccine boxes, vaccine information is then uploaded to the national vaccine administration system. This means that vaccinators can select the correct batch when administering the vaccine. TrackVax has been installed in all CVCs across the country. This allows the CVC teams to identify, label, track and report on the vaccines in their centres, allowing a much easier vaccine reconciliation process locally and nationally. Both solutions are provided by GS1 Ireland
