Royal Free London Decontamination Services- Case Study

The Trazanto Trial.

Royal Free London Decontamination Services provide various decontamination and sterilisation services for reusable medical devices and flexible endoscopes. These services are offered to all Royal Free London NHS sites, other NHS healthcare providers and private healthcare organisations.

The decontamination service at Chalkmil Drive is the largest capacity decontamination unit in the NHS, and with over 100 members of staff, it operates a 24/7 service.

When did the Trazanto trial begin?

Royal Free London NHS foundation trust began a trial of the Trazanto at the start of 2021. Trialling the use of the AI system alongside their old process, the trust switched entirely to Trazanto in March 2021. Trazanto, by Terragene, is a revolutionary technology, and Decontamination Quality Manager David Dodd said; "It's a more efficient way of carrying out daily autoclave testing".

In addition, the Trazanto removed the previous 'paper-based process', ultimately resulting in a more simply accessible process. When discussing Terragene's assistive, cost-effective technology, David added; "Trazanto will save staff time in both short-term and long-term, which in turn saves money, as will the ability to scan and store our records electronically ourselves without sending to a third party."

Why is the Trazanto better than standard procedure?

It is essential for capital equipment in healthcare settings to be tested and validated regularly in compliance with the latest HTM 01 – 01: 2016. The daily testing of autoclaves and washer-disinfectors at Royal Free London Decontamination Services is critical to ensuring patient safety. Some hospitals use a more 'old fashioned' system to record data, David said; "Prior to using Trazanto, we used a paper-based solution with the common Bowie Dick tests and record sheets".

The healthcare industry has been hit incredibly hard by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, and David added; "the increase in patient procedures due to delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has been the biggest challenge. With every hospital increasing patient surgery and endoscope procedures, ensuring that we have the resources to meet demand has required extra attention". By switching to the Trazanto and Bionova Traceability Software, it has enabled the Decontamination Services Unit to modernise the way that they operate.

Using the Trazanto to record data rather than traditional methods adds many benefits to the Healthcare industry. According to David, "the main thing that sells Trazanto is the scanning system. Traditionally, our records and tests would be sent to a third party to scan electronically; however, with the Trazanto scanning system, we are able to remove the third party and store all of our records electronically ourselves as part of the daily process". Not only does the Trazanto provide a simple traceability process without the risk of human error, it also eliminates the extra time needed to send to a third party.

What are the benefits of Bionova Cloud software?

The Trazanto also comes with the option to add Bionova Cloud software, and the team at Royal Free London Decontamination Services opted to switch over to the new technology. Terragene's technologically advanced system has the ability to test autoclaves, test washer-disinfectors and record protein residue testing. David continued; "We use the Bionova system for protein testing. This is a requirement from HTM, and the Bionova system provides us with the quantitative figure that is required. Using the same software as Trazanto, we are able to keep all of our records and data in the same place, making it easy to access".

What do the staff think of the Trazanto and Bionova Cloud software?

Production Manager Fatma Kafali said; "It is a great piece of technology which has made daily testing a lot quicker and easier for us. On a day-to-day basis, we work with tight time constraints, so using the Bionova/Trazanto has made our mornings seamless and has significantly reduced the possibility of human error. Another feature which has benefited us is the removal of paperwork as data is recorded electronically".

The staff at Royal Free London Decontamination Services received the Trazanto positively, and are reportedly thrilled to be continuing the use of it at their site. The feedback from all the staff who use Trazanto has been positive, and they say that they find that the process is easier and more efficient, saving them time when carrying out tasks.

The staff said; "The majority of our processes are electronic so changing to Trazanto pushes us even closer to reducing the amount of manual paperwork processes we have within the unit. The scanning facility saves us a long-term cost-saving on having to send paperwork away for scanning, and the scanning function that records the pass or fails and details of the test sheet itself not only saves time for staff but also reduces the risk for error".