OUR STRATEGY
Strategy and Key Strategic Focus Areas 2019-2025
OUR STRATEGY
Strategy and Key Strategic Focus Areas 2019-2025
Our strategy is more than just a plan – it is a powerful blueprint for success. Our iHEALTh strategic framework, ensures we remain relevant, financially sustainable, and at the forefront of innovation, ultimately strengthening the blood supply chain and guaranteeing exceptional patient care in the ever-evolving healthcare landscape.
The iHEALTh strategic framework translates our mission into tangible actions across all aspects of our operations. iHEALTh is shaped by seven strategic objectives that guide resource allocation and measure progress towards our goals.
Innovation
Human-Centred Collections
Excellence in Processes
Administrative Rigour
Logistics Benchmark
Testing and Quality
Hearts and
Minds
Our Strategic Priorities Reflect:
What will be achieved
How success will be measured, i.e. strategic measures
What will be done to achieve the strategy, i.e. strategic initiatives
The strategy sets concise and measurable outcomes (See Performance Against Strategy) based on the standards and framework of SANBS. Key to the success of the strategy is buy-in from stakeholders, including the Board, the Executive Committee and all employees.
While iHEALTh has been instrumental in the pursuit of our strategy since 2019, we are strategically evolving our focus towards a customer-centric approach in 2025/2026 and beyond. This means prioritising stakeholder and patient needs and positioning SANBS at the cutting edge of healthcare innovation to build a sustainable future.
We recognise that our greatest assets are our people and the relationships we build. Innovation fuels our progress, and the iHEALTh framework serves as the engine that drives it forward.
Commitment to Continuous Improvement
Our dedication to innovation and continuous improvement fuels the ongoing refinement of our strategy, with iHEALTh serving as the foundation for our journey towards 2030. This ensures long-term growth and solidifies SANBS' position as the trusted provider of blood and blood services for all South Africans.
Metrics to Achieve the Mission
Our mission to provide reliable and trusted blood products and services at world-class quality and cost underpins our entire strategy. This commitment translates into four key performance metrics: Quality, Reliability, Coverage and Cost. iHEALTh, our strategic framework, actively addresses these metrics through clearly defined objectives. To ensure continuous improvement and global competitiveness, we have further unpacked our strategic goals around these metrics and established weighted indices for performance evaluation.
Essentially each of these indices comprises a number of internal metrics and at least one external metric to ensure comparability with other blood services.
Regular consideration of these by our Board, Exco and management teams helps monitor progress against the strategy.
Reliability
Reliability, for SANBS, is a foundational value that aligns our organisation with the quality of being able to perform well, irrespective of the challenges that we encounter. We maintain product and service reliability through:
Resilience of Infrastructure
Consistency of Delivery
Constantly Improving our Process Reliability
A feedback system available to doctors, donors, patients and employees:
Feedback facilitates identification of weaknesses:
Turnaround Time
Reliability Index
Cost
Cost management is an important consideration. Over the past few years, operating costs have increased above inflation. We will strive to contain these costs going forward. Unpaid debts from government and private entities also need to be urgently reduced. Addressing these issues head on will ensure SANBS remains financially sustainable in the long run. We will achieve reduced costs by:
Improving Variable Cost Per Unit
Reducing Logistic and Peripheral Costs
Reducing Costs of Collections
Reducing Levels of Wastage
Cost Index
Quality
Quality is a crucial part of SANBS, and an important pillar for the future. Quality processes will ensure we are able to track our activities and manage them optimally, from the screening process of blood donors to the transfusion of blood products to patients.
Direct message and notifications systems have been enhanced and streamlined for an improved user experience. Employees log improvement opportunities to allow a proactive response. The quality team is integrated into the operational areas and serve as advisory experts.
Optimal Quality of SANBS is, and will be Achieved through:
Reliability Index
Coverage
It is imperative for SANBS to have its blood and blood products made available to all, irrespective of location.
As an organisation, we provide trusted blood products and services, and these need to be available to all patients. We must also be able to meet growing expectations and demands.