A report from the area of Information Technology and Communications (ATIC) of the Internal Audit of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) revealed the need to improve the information systems in blood banks.
Rafael Herrera, Head of ATIC Audit, said that blood banks use different ways to bring this control and the right thing to do is organize and integrate it into a single system.
This would help to improve control of donations and expiration dates,
because the bags have to be preserved in appropriate and controlled environments, blood has a shelf life,”
explained Herrera.
At the moment, 17 blood banks use an integrated system that allows them to register all blood donations (called iDelfin), but others institutions are limited to an excel spreadsheet.
They also detected some risks in computer security, since there is no antivirus in some work units, which were acquired under a tender.
Since these computers are not owned by the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), they could not apply the security system of the institution, so the recommendation was to check the contract with the company.
These difficulties gave way to a third point to improve: the centralization of information, which would be much more advantageous for the CCSS.