MS1 Bureau Service

Unmanaged Codes

Under the GS1/CfH agreement each NHS hospital site will be provided with one identifying company prefix. The Medical Standard 1 Code Allocation Tool (CAT) and MS1 Bureau service provides number allocation management throughout hospital sites to ensure that the GS1 code is constructed and assigned according to the GS1 standard. This includes the primary application identifiers of GTIN, GIAI, GLN, and GSRN codes.

GS1 make their code structures as simple as possible to enable organisations to construct GIAI’s by simply adding a prefix to their existing serial codes with 8004 plus their new GS1 company prefix.

An example of a GIAI code: (8004) 05123456 100

As the serial number is user defined there is no inherent check for uniqueness. This is acceptable for organisations that only has one asset management system or list; however as all hospital sites have more than one asset management system it will fail unless managed properly.

Another example is related to GTIN allocation. In the Sterile Services Department for example, theatre tray sets are requested by theatre staff, hospital departments, and by external organisations, and under GS1 rules a GTIN is required for this trade.

Under the GS1/CfH agreement each hospital site will have only 10,000 GTIN’s allocated to them so they could quickly run out of numbers in a single department. To remedy this situation it has already been agreed that GS1 will issue additional GTIN’s using a new site code but this will add further complications unless managed properly.

Managed Solution

The bureau becomes the central point and all GS1 Application Identifiers are managed by MS1 including GTIN, GIAI, GLN and GRSN codes. The MS1 management of allocated codes ensures uniqueness across the site, it is compliant with all GS1 compliant systems, and code integrity is not affected by staff turnover or internal changes.