OUR CAPITALS

Our Relationship Capital - Stakeholder Engagement

National Council, Zone Donor & Branch Donor Committees

Periodic engagement

Metrics used to measure quality of relationships: Extent of concerns/issues raised in GSEC donor structures report, Zone Forum platform: Issues addressed & Opportunities for education, Initiatives/activities to influence contribution as committee members

Current Relationahip: Good | Desired Relationship: Trusted | Responsible: Executive Management

Stakeholder needs, interests and expectations
  • Due regard for donor interests and wellbeing
  • SANBS carries out its mandate effectively
  • Consultation
  • Transparency
  • Relevant, accurate and timeous information sharing
  • Achievement of strategic objectives
Key risks
  • Not adhering to prescribed governance rules and structures
  • Ineffective interaction between management and the committees
Opportunities
  • Leverage the passion and commitment of the committee members to increase our donor base
  • Relevant education and awareness campaigns
SANBS response
  • This is a key focus area for donor management
  • Implementation of revised branch and zone committee rules through intensive engagement and training of committee members
  • Donor committee members (branch and zone) meet formally with designated SANBS personnel at least three times a year
Status of current engagements
  • Actively engage committee members in donor recruitment initiatives
  • Continued with hybrid meetings to enable greater participation by committee members based in outlying areas
  • A nominated Council member participates in the GSEC
  • Donor for Life Award functions resumed in August 2022. More than 100 donor award functions were held to celebrate donor milestones achieved from 2019 to 2021
  • Key donor achievements celebrated and published in local and social media

REGULATORS

National Department of Health, South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), Ongoing engagement

Metrics used to measure quality of relationships: Number of healthcare workers trained, One-unit-at-a-time issues, Discussion platforms Publications

Current Relationahip: Fair | Desired Relationship: Trusted | Responsible: Executive management

Stakeholder needs, interests and expectations
  • Improved patient outcome
  • Improved healthcare service delivery
  • Sufficient, quality blood products
  • Right product, right patient at the right time
  • Monitoring of side effects
  • Training and education
  • Escalation of all major decisions
  • Cost-efficient service delivery
  • Consultation
  • Transparency
Key risks
  • Loss of license to operate
  • Inability to meet demand
  • Morbidity/Mortality
  • Poor patient outcomes
  • Increased costs
  • Delayed payments
  • Insufficient healthcare workers for appropriate service delivery
  • Poor uptake of patient blood management
Opportunities
  • Product and cost efficiencies
  • Digitalisation
  • Product and service diversity
  • Reduce wastage
  • Use of big data
  • Logistics footprint
  • New service delivery models (e.g., SMART fridges)
  • Patient blood management
SANBS response
  • Adherence to service level agreements
  • B-BBEE
  • Provision of data/metrics
  • Portal for debtors’ payments
  • Interdependent projects to improve blood product management
  • Scientific research and publications
  • Education through Transfusion Committees
Status of current engagements
  • Regular structured as well as informal interactions and engagements at local, provincial and national level
  • Annual Haemovigilance Report
  • A national structure to address blood transfusion and related matters at DoH is still lacking
  • Improvement in payments

SA National Accreditation System (SANAS)

Regular engagement

Metrics used to measure quality of relationships: % SANAS accreditation

Current Relationahip: Good | Desired Relationship: Trusted | Responsible: Medical Director

Stakeholder needs, interests and expectations
  • Compliance
  • Global interaction
  • Harmonisation of Standards
Key risks
  • Loss of licence to practice
  • Loss of trust from key stakeholders
  • Litigation
  • Medico-legal risks
Opportunities
  • Maintain the high quality of our products and services
  • Global collaboration
  • Recognition as an industry leader
SANBS response
  • Disciplined adherence to Standards of Practice for Blood Transfusion in South Africa
  • Maintaining SANAS accreditation to various ISO standards
  • Proactive identification of global accreditation standards for implementation
  • Participation in the development of relevant national and international quality documents, standards and frameworks
Status of current engagements
  • ISO participation – SANBS participates in the various ISO standards’ revisions
  • SANAS – SANBS participates on their technical committee as blood transfusion experts
  • SAHPRA engagement through the PEI blood project
  • 100% SANAS accreditation maintained

MEDICAL FRATERNITY

Doctors, Nurses, Patients and Medical Aid Schemes, Ongoing engagement

Metrics used to measure quality of relationships: Donor feedback/surveys

Current Relationahip: Fair | Desired Relationship: Trusted | Responsible: Executive management

Stakeholder needs, interests and expectations
  • Sufficient, quality blood products and services
  • Accurate, timely billing
  • Improved patient outcome
  • Improved healthcare service delivery
  • Training and education
  • Escalation of all major decisions
  • Cost-efficient service delivery
  • Consultation
  • Transparency
  • Fair and equitable treatment
Key risks
  • Insufficient blood stocks – morbidity and mortality
  • Unhappy customers
  • Reputation of SANBS
  • Poor patient outcomes
  • Increased costs
  • Insufficient healthcare workers for appropriate service delivery
  • Poor uptake of patient blood management
Opportunities
  • New income streams
  • SANBS RAD Academy
  • Big data
  • Digitalisation
  • Product and service diversity
  • Reduce wastage
  • Logistics footprint
  • New service delivery models (e.g., SMART fridges)
  • Patient blood management
SANBS response
  • Continued customer engagements to meet requirements
  • Delivery of right product at right time
  • Research and development to improve donor and patient care
  • Donor rewards programme
  • Accurate demand planning
  • Driving PBM in South Africa
  • Clinical guideline development
  • PBM short learning programme development
Status of current engagements
  • Establishment of and support to various discussion platforms using SANBS data to improve patient outcomes and drive appropriate use of blood products
  • Hybrid meetings and educational events
  • Participating in ongoing SANBS external customer service surveys to continuously meet the expectations of our stakeholders
  • Participate at executive level in the sub-Saharan PBM forum
  • Participation in the development of relevant national and international guideline documents, standards and frameworks
  • Developing new relationships with private sector hospital groups and healthcare funders
  • Number of transfusions per capita

SUPPLIERS

Vendors/Suppliers, Ongoing engagement

Metrics used to measure quality of relationships: Supplier engagement survey (Top 20 suppliers), Key performance indicators are:Cost of doing business, Customer satisfaction and feedback, Flexibility and ease of doing business, Quality of service & Partnership

Current Relationahip: Fair | Desired Relationship: Trusted | Responsible: Chief Financial Officer

Stakeholder needs, interests and expectations
  • Payments for goods and services rendered
  • Fair, ethical and transparent procurement processes/tenders, etc
Key risks
  • Goods and services not delivered at the right time, right quality and as per specifications
  • Product quality failure and wastage
  • Delayed or no blood or blood products delivery to patients
  • System downtime
  • Increased costs
  • Poor contract management
  • Lack of B-BBEE
  • Vendors preferring not to do business with SANBS
  • Litigation
Opportunities
  • Formal engagement plan for critical vendors
  • Efficiencies and competencies
  • Improved supply chain management
  • Just-in-time inventory management
  • Digitalisation
  • Improved contract management
  • Encourage B-BBEE
  • Internal training on good procurement processes
SANBS response
  • Critical vendor list
  • Procurement plan to address B-BBEE
  • Flexible procurement and strategic partnership
  • Contract management
Status of current engagements
  • New procurement policy implemented in FY21, which introduced flexible procurement and strategic partnerships, has resulted in improvements in stakeholder relationships (Positive feedback in supplier engagement survey)
  • Further policy improvement during FY22 and ongoing in FY23
  • 2022/23 budget approved; Demand Plan updated accordingly
  • Preferential procurement significantly increased during the year
  • B-BBEE scores increased significantly – SANBS moved to Level 4

SA AND INTERNATIONAL BLOOD PARTNERS

Business partners:NBI, WCBS, ISBT, AfSBT, AABB & SASBT, Regular engagement

Metrics used to measure quality of relationships: Blood safety meeting attendance and engagement, Meeting the contractual obligations of plasma supply, Working party membership

Current Relationahip: Good | Desired Relationship: Trusted | Responsible: Executive management, Senior management

Stakeholder needs, interests and expectations
  • National supply management of all blood products (WCBS) and plasma for fractionation (NBI)
  • Collaboration in seamless national product and service delivery
  • Alignment of quality and safety
  • Ensuring product availability
Key risks
  • Disparate approach to common challenges
  • Increased legal risk in the absence of collaboration
  • Reputation
  • Risk of unmet demand for plasma-derived medicinal products
Opportunities
  • Integrated South African blood services
  • Improved service delivery
  • Consistent decision making
  • Showcase the work of SANBS at conferences and in publications of these organisations
  • Improve SANBS reputation as a centre of excellence globally
  • Continuous quality improvement through participation in expert committees
SANBS response
  • Service level agreements
  • Collaboration on common policies, procedures and standards
  • NHI response
  • Annual National Blood Safety Committee meetings
  • Sharing of blood and blood products when there are localised shortages
  • Research collaborations
  • Actively encourage participation of employees in many working parties, societies and organisations
Status of current engagements
  • Annual National Blood Safety Committee Meeting with representatives from SANBS, WCBS and NBI ensures an ongoing platform for addressing ongoing and acute risks in transfusion medicine
  • Quarterly Emerging infectious disease (EID) subcommittee meetings with SANBS, WCBS and NBI to assess the global landscape for transfusion transmissible emerging and re-emerging pathogens as well as an ongoing risk-based analysis to inform future decisions on mitigating bacterial contamination of platelets
  • SANBS had meetings with NBI, focusing on the demand for plasma- derived medicinal products
  • Extensive collaboration with WCBS ensuring a uniform approach to blood safety challenges, pathogen reduction, low collections and product offering
  • Collaboration with WCBS (as part of the South African Society for Blood Transfusion) and ISBT on the planning of the scientific programme of the Regional ISBT Congress to be held in November 2023 in Cape Town
  • Revision of the “Guidelines for the use of blood and blood products in South Africa”

LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL HEALTH AND TRANSFUSION MEDICINE ORGANISATIONS

WHO, Sub-Saharan PBM group, NICD, SABM, SAGES, VITALANT, SACEMA

Metrics used to measure quality of relationships: Number of: Publications, Abstracts, Book chapters, Guidelines, Formal collaborations, Grants received

Current Relationahip: Good | Desired Relationship: Trusted | Responsible: Executive management

Stakeholder needs, interests and expectations
  • Better understanding of African and resource constrained countries’ transfusion medicine needs
  • Appreciation of the role of blood transfusion services as a cornerstone of healthcare delivery in South Africa
  • Input from SANBS in developing transfusion medicine-related guidelines
Key risks
  • Lack of SANBS representation in key local and international decision-making affecting blood service delivery
  • Inability to influence the strategic vision of organisations affecting blood service delivery
Opportunities
  • Research collaborations
  • Improve SANBS reputation as a centre of excellence globally
  • Continuous quality improvement through participation in expert committees
SANBS response
  • Actively encourage participation of employees in many working parties, societies and organisations
  • Supporting employees to take leading roles in the various organisations
  • RAD Academy
  • Academic collaborations
  • Dual career pathway
  • Research collaborations
Status of current engagements
  • SANBS are members of several international societies, expert committees and working parties
  • Collectively, SANBS employees continue to contribute to multiple international peer-reviewed publications with various working parties
  • Participated in the African Blood Regulators Forum
  • Participate in a WHO working group established in FY21 to address PBM implementation in Africa as part of the “WHO Action framework to advance universal access to safe, effective and quality assured blood products”
  • SANBS employees authored and co-authored four chapters in the AABB-led “Global perspectives and practices in Transfusion Medicine” book
  • SANBS in collaboration with UFS drafted the first short learning course on Patient Blood Management for doctors to be launched in this coming year
  • Collaborated with NICD on sero-surveillance studies of Covid-19 and ongoing discussions around other potential public health respiratory viruses

Media

Ongoing engagement

Metrics used to measure quality of relationships: Track positive and negative coverage by surveying the media routinely used, Measure Net Tonality to track positive/negative trend in the media

Current Relationahip: Fair | Desired Relationship: Trusted | Responsible: Executive management

Stakeholder needs, interests and expectations
  • Reputation/goodwill
  • Education and awareness
  • Accurate and effective communication
  • Public image
Key risks
  • Negative publicity
  • Poor brand value and reputation
  • Poor communications to stakeholders
Opportunities
  • Positive brand value
  • Increased positive coverage
  • Free airtime – social media platforms
  • Bloggers
SANBS response
  • Formal media strategy
  • Communication plan and delegated spokespersons
  • Social media policy
  • Thought leadership programme
  • Authentic brand ambassadors
Status of current engagements
  • Continuous media engagement in the last year
  • Tier 1 and Tier 2 media relationships favourable
  • Social media specialist appointed for dedicated attention to expanding social media presence and increasing engagement using these platforms
  • Increasing PR value
  • Media lists compiled and referenced on the database
  • Media drop offs during campaigns