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Bar codes enhance patient safety

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, November 14, 2007

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To ensure that patients are receiving the correct medication, a Kentucky hospital has recently adopted technology that's normally used to track package delivery, according to the Glasgow Daily Times.

Last month, staff members at T.J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow, KY, implemented bar codes for medication administration. Nurses operate a computer that is attached to a wheeled cart; the computer is linked wirelessly to electronic databases. The computer is used to scan the barcode on the patient's hospital ID bracelet and the barcode on the medication container, confirming the proper match. If it finds a discrepancy, it alerts the nurse, helping to reduce the incidents of medication errors.

Training on the new system has been taking place since August and each nurse is trained for one day in the hospital's computer lab. The technology is aimed at improving patient safety as it makes certain that patients receive the correct type and amount of medication at the right time.

Source: Glasgow Daily Times

Other articles of interest:

New Jersey study analyzes nurses' role in medication errors

The right information can help with medication reconciliation

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