Sligo General Hospital is part of the Western Region of the Health Services Executive and provides a broad range of healthcare services to the people of the north-west of the Republic of Ireland.

While maintaining their paper-based system, staff members of the Blood Transfusion department implemented and validated Q-Pulse for document management. This was achieved with limited resources within a specific timeframe, thus ensuring compliance with national and international legislation including the European Blood Directives.

"The assistance we received from Gael was of great benefit in getting best use from Q-Pulse from the outset," explains Noel O’Shaughnessy, the Blood Transfusion Laboratory’s Chief Medical Scientist. "Prior to installation, Gael met with us to analyse our document control processes and procedures, in order to see how best we could implement Q-Pulse to replace our existing processes."

"Training provided a clear understanding of how to best use the system’s core modules, thus ensuring the immediate execution of the functionality of the Q-Pulse system. To help us make a start in using Q-Pulse for compliance with the European Blood Directives, Gael also provided ISO 15189 and Irish Health Services Accreditation Board (IHSAB) cross references.

"Once we mastered the Document and CA/PA modules, the other modules, such as Asset, Audit and Suppliers, were easy to populate," says Noel. "The knowledge we gained from the implementation and training also made it easy for us to demonstrate Q-Pulse’s potential value to other sections of the Hospital, as well as the other hospitals in the region."

As the implementation of Q-Pulse was so successful in the Blood Transfusion department it has now been extended to the whole hospital – a true endorsement of the benefits of the system.

"Thanks to Gael, we’re now up and running with Q-Pulse at a steady pace," says Noel. "We use all modules and find it very versatile, for example, in managing our EU Haemovigilance compliance requirements.

"There is no doubt that all modules of Q-Pulse are central to our daily Document Control, as well as being integral to us achieving ISO 15189 accreditation."

"My advice to potential users of Q-Pulse would be: get it right from the start. Time spent on customisation will pay dividends when populating the modules, hence take all the advice and help from Gael when setting up your system."