At IDI 2025, Alex Prior, Head of Sales at Athera Healthcare, delivered a presentation that challenged how we think about track and trace systems. Drawing from a unique, hands-on experience working with decontamination teams across Ireland and the UK, Alex shared insights into where the industry is now and where it needs to go.

The Core Question: Are We Getting the Most Out of Our Systems?

Alex opened with two questions he hears repeatedly from customers:

• How do we know we’re getting the most out of our track and trace system?
• What are the common objectives across HSCNI, HSE, and NHS that track and trace supports?

These questions reveal a broader truth: healthcare units have invested in track and trace, but many suspect they’re not leveraging its full potential.

The Foundation: What Track and Trace Actually Does

In Sterile Services Departments

Track and trace captures the entire reprocessing journey:

Receipt/Dirty Returns mark when items return from patient use, starting production timers and flagging high-priority equipment.

Wash records set checking, manual washing, ultrasonic cleaning, and washer load/unload cycles, including failures. Machine integration automates cycle pass/fail data and cycle numbers, eliminating manual entry errors.

Pack completes the packing phase with printed labels and checklists, recording processing times while enabling paperless set checking.

Autoclave/LTS tracks sterilisation load/unload, machine failures, and wet or torn packs, ensuring only properly sterilised items proceed.

Stores extends SSD services by recording equipment delivery to theatre stores, enhancing location visibility.

Dispatch captures the loading of trolleys and carts before identifying recipients and tracking items out the door. This is the most common endpoint in current track and trace implementations.

In Endoscopy Reprocessing

The workflow mirrors SSD but with endoscope-specific considerations:

Receipt/Dirty Returns starts production timing for scopes.

Manual Wash records sink washing, brushing, leak testing, and scope checks (though new technologies offer automated alternatives).

EWD/Wash Cycle tracks washer load/unload, failures, and test cycles. Single-scan integration allows direct process capture from machines.

Cabinet/Vac Pack/LTS identifies the next step for scopes not immediately delivered to patient use, applying correct expiry dates.

Dispatch captures final processing and delivery points.

Treatment Room represents the most common endpoint, ensuring patient safety through expiry checks and enforcing post-flush cleaning before return to ERU/EDU.

The Gap: What’s Not Being Captured

Alex highlighted critical blind spots in many implementations:

Theatre Integration. Patient association should link equipment used to specific patients through EPR/patient system integration, creating complete reporting. Yet many systems stop at dispatch.

Stores Control Points. Additional scanning in stores provides clinical teams with kit visibility, significantly reducing calls and informing better decisions: “Do we really need to order loan equipment? Is fast track actually required?”

Manual Traceability. Even with track and trace software, manual processes persist. Machine logbooks, routine testing kits, and task check sheets often remain paper-based.

Scope Usage Monitoring. Is the endoscope being used in a semi-critical or critical procedure? ERCP, EUS, biopsies? Does sterility need consideration? Is the scope being used off-label? Capturing this data creates reports that drive better process understanding.

Post-Flush Clean. An essential section in the decontamination cycle, yet many systems don’t capture it. Has it been flagged by auditors (JAG or IHEEM)? Should it be a mandatory scan to prevent reprocessing?

The Strategic Opportunity: Decontamination Data as an Enabler

Here’s where Alex’s presentation shifted from operational to strategic. Decontamination data isn’t just about compliance anymore. It’s a strategic enabler that demonstrates:

• Strict process control
• Non-conformances and quality maintenance
• Kit availability
• Performance metrics: equipment utilisation, capacity, items processed, operator input, machine uptime
• Turnaround times
• Infection prevention through quality processing evidence

Real Examples of Strategic Data Use

Capacity Planning. Analyse washer production to evidence the need for new machines supporting new surgical centers, theatres, or wards.

Adverse Event Analysis. What looks like scattered incidents might reveal common problems. Torn packs in storerooms? Data traces it to specific racking.

Fast Track Optimisation. Compare turnaround times against fast track requests. Evidence shows where emergency processing can be reduced through better planning.

Peak Production Times. Optimise staff rotas. Where not possible, use data to evidence that more staff are required or measure high-performing staff based on instruments processed.

True Processing KPIs. Metrics down to instrument level reveal exactly where efficiency gains or problems exist.

The Integration Imperative

Alex emphasised that track and trace systems realise their full potential when connected to wider hospital systems:

Patient Records link devices used to specific patients through a single scan point.

Theatre & Inventory Management coordinates instrument availability with surgical schedules.

Incident Management reports non-conformances directly into expert management systems, removing dual workloads.

Machine Interfaces automate data directly from equipment, eliminating human error.

Yet some hospitals haven’t embedded these interfaces, while others are exploring new connection possibilities.

Alignment with Digital Strategy

Alex referenced two critical frameworks shaping the future:

HSCNI Digital Strategy (2022-2030) emphasises integration and standardisation, streamlining systems across regions and services while fostering digital ecosystem partnerships across public and private sectors.

Digital Health Strategic Implementation Roadmap (2024-2030) outlines comprehensive digital transformation aligned with the Department of Health’s Digital for Care framework, focusing on digitally enabled and connected care plus data-driven services.

Track and trace evolution aligns perfectly with these strategic objectives.

The Healthcare Context: Why This Matters Now

According to the ECDC, healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) affect approximately 4.3 million patients annually across the EU/EEA. These infections are considered the most frequent adverse event in healthcare delivery. The average prevalence in European acute care hospitals sits around 7.1% based on point prevalence surveys.

Decontamination isn’t peripheral to patient safety. It’s central. And the data proves it.

A Framework for Moving Forward

Alex proposed a three-step collaborative approach:

1. Identify the Outcome What are you trying to improve? Patient safety? Waiting lists? Efficiency and wastage? Kit turnaround and availability?

2. What Does Good Look Like? What data supports the end goal? What systems can be combined? What are the measurable points of interest?

3. Form a Solution Ensure data is captured. Create reports that provide evidence required for informed decisions. Achieve collaborative solutions.

The Three Major Trends Ahead

Alex identified where the industry is heading:

1. From Reports to Trend Analysis Shifting from documentation to predictive analytics and continuous improvement.

2. Solution Interoperability Breaking down silos across healthcare divisions. Track and trace must integrate seamlessly with EPR, theatre management, stores, and incident systems.

3. Strengthening Supplier/Decontamination Partnerships Moving beyond vendor relationships to genuine collaboration that solves real problems.

The Bottom Line

Alex concluded with a powerful statement: “Decon needs to be recognized as innovation leaders on a strategic level.”

The technology exists. The data is being captured. The strategic frameworks (HSCNI, Digital Health Roadmap) are aligned. What’s needed now is recognition that decontamination data isn’t just operational detail, it’s strategic intelligence that drives patient safety, operational efficiency, capacity planning, and quality improvement across healthcare.

The question isn’t whether track and trace systems can deliver strategic value. They can. The question is whether healthcare teams are ready to think bigger about what decontamination can achieve.

For teams looking to maximise their track and trace investment, Alex and the Athera Healthcare team recommend starting with three questions: What outcomes matter most to your team? What data do you need to drive those outcomes? And who needs to be part of the conversation to make it happen?

Get in touch to discuss: https://atherahealthcare.com/book-a-demo/