The inspection for the Aarhus Center for Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Aarhus, Denmark was performed on 4-5 September 2023 by the following inspectors:
Clinical Adult + Bone Marrow collection + Immune Effector Cell: Kamal Bouabdallah
Quality Manager + Team Leader: Anne Emmett
JACIE Trainee QM: Vilma Jeršovienė
Collection of Apheresis: Richard Willfred Olaussen
Processing: Michael Uhlin
By Anne Emmett, Quality Manager, BMT, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
The inspection team had an interesting and very sociable visit to Aarhus Hospital, with good accommodation (only a short walk to an excellent Street Food venue), good weather and only a short taxi ride to the hospital village – and it truly is a village with several hospitals located onto the site within the last 10 years. There were civilised cyclists everywhere, queueing politely at lights and avoiding pedestrians.
The local team were very open and welcoming – not least with regular supplies of refreshments, including local pastries – and we were based in a good sized, well lit, conference room. WiFi and access badges were provided, along with the offer of a laptop if required. The buildings we were in were only three floors high with very clear delineation of staff on ground floor, patients on middle floor, and an amazing array of bicycles, scooters, electric carts and robots on the third floor for moving staff, goods and even patients around the site. It was quite amusing when told we were going to the ‘old’ building on site to find it was built in 1988, many of us have much older ‘old’ buildings – in my hospital’s case going back to 1852!
Staff were very open in their comments, responding to our enquiries with good humour and honesty. As most of the inspectors and inspectees did not have English as their first language, there was very little confusion or mis-communication. The clinical, collection and processing areas were all in good order, but looked operational – not as though they had been tidied up for the visit. Many answers to queries were found during informal chats whilst walking, rather than formal interviews. Both opening and closing meetings were well attended by the Aarhus team. The inspectors rather enjoyed their visit to a less well known part of Denmark.