• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Learn how supermarket-style bar codes can improve patient safety

Accreditation Connection, August 27, 2004

One of the JCAHO's National Patient Safety Goals requires you to improve the accuracy of patient identification. A bar-code system can help you do that.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on February 25 also announced its final rule requiring manufacturers to place bar codes-much like those found on products in the retail setting-on most prescription and over-the-counter drugs, as well as blood products, within two years. New drugs must have bar-code labels within 60 days of FDA approval.

The final rule became effective April 26. It calls for manufacturers to place the medication's National Drug Code number, which identifies the drug, on the bar code. Companies may also include the product's lot number and expiration date information, although they are not required to do so.

Bar-code technology will help caregivers ensure that the right patient receives the right drug and the right dose at the right time.

Here's how it works:

A caregiver scans the patient's bar-coded identification bracelet before administering out a drug. The computer then pulls up the patient's medical record.

The caregiver scans the drug the pharmacy provided for the patient. The scan alerts the computer about the drug.

The computer compares the patient's medical record to the drug the caregiver is about to administer to ensure that they match. If there is a problem, (e.g., the drug does not match the patient or the medication is the wrong dose) the computer alerts the caregiver.

"I really do see this as a tremendous breakthrough for patient safety," says Deidre Shinn, MSN, MBA, clinical patient-safety coordinator at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE. "It's like wearing a safety belt. This is another level of protection."

Double check for safety

Colmery-O'Neil Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center gave 5.7 million doses of medications without an error using a bar-code system, says Jeff Ramirez, PharmD, chief of management and clinical information systems for VA pharmacy-benefits management.

The FDA hopes bar coding will prevent nearly 500,000 adverse events within the next 20 years if more hospitals purchase systems.

Bar-coding technology reduced many types of errors-including wrong-time administration-at the VA, Ramirez says. "We stuck the bar code in there as a final check," he says. duPont Hospital for Children began researching a bar-code system for its facility last year, Shinn says. Bar coding is important for the pediatric institution because most medication orders use weight-based dosing. A bar-code system alerts caregivers if the patient's weight did not match the dose on the medication order.

"It's a little more challenging," Shinn says. "[Bar coding] offers additional barriers to errors."

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive