Name
Haval Ozgun
Role
Haval is the Point of Care Testing Manager in Clinical Blood Sciences. He joined SWLP in November 2016.
What does an average day look like for you?
Haval starts his day by checking that all the analysers are working and that there is no downtime. This can be done from the lab at St George’s. With 36 blood gas analysers and 400 glucometers across four sites this is no small task! He then looks at internal and external quality control.
He goes through all the training requests and access requirements that are emailed through to the team on a daily basis. As the team manages devices on four different sites, this can lead to a lot of requests! He is currently in the process of implementing several new POCT services across the network. He looks into any contractual elements of the service to increase harmonisation and cost savings, plans for committee meetings and any medical device meetings he has coming up.
At the moment, a lot of Haval’s work is focused on setting up POCT at New Victoria Hospital, as this element of SWLP’s contract with the hospital is going live at the begin of April. This means setting up IT interfaces, training staff to use the analysers and setting up the analysers themselves. This is the first time that the hospital will have fully-networked POCT testing encompassed by a governance and quality framework.
What is your favourite thing about the job?
Haval really enjoys building POCT into clinical pathways to improve clinical outcomes for patients and clinician satisfaction. He also likes that his role his both clinical and business management elements, keeping his days varied.
Is there a moment you will always remember?
One of Haval’s proudest moments in his role was the introduction of POCT to the flu service at St George’s. SWLP was the first team to place rapid flu testing in the emergency department, which had a huge impact on turnaround times, ED performance and infection control. The team was a finalist for a HSJ award for this crucial work.
How did you get into biomedical science?
Haval’s background is in physiology and biomedical science, having carried out his studies in both Turkey and the UK. He also completed postgraduate studies in healthcare management. He started out in the Emergency Department, where he first saw the value of POCT in making patients’ length of stay shorter and improve clinical outcomes and clinical satisfaction.