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The Benefits of Barcoding

February 17, 2012 9:31 am

We often hear and read about the benefits of barcoding in the hospital. The use of bar-code verification technology can substantially decrease both transcription errors and medication administration errors in hospitals. Even though there are clear benefits from utilizing barcoding technology, only 34.5% of hospitals have adopted bar-code scanning. To read more about the lack of adoption, Talyst’s Jerry Fahrni goes into further detail of why he believes BCMA adoption has been a struggle.

Adapting to change sometimes can be difficult, but after reading the below article about Saranac Lake Hospital’s success in the adoption of barcoding, it’s unbelievable that other hospitals do not adopt this technology.

“We’re checking every med with the patient’s identification, so we aren’t going to give any medications that aren’t scheduled or ordered,” said AMC registered nurse Kelly Burnett. “Less med errors, that’s the primary use of it.”

Hospital Pharmacy Director Tom Smith said the new technology reduces the amount of “human error” that can sometimes occur when giving a patient medication. He also said it means nurses spend more time at the bedside with their patients.

“Before, the nurses really had to go back to a central medication room to get their meds,” he said. “This whole system has helped moved the nurses closer to the bedside so they’re not hiking down the hall anytime they need something.”

A great event to learn more about barcode technology is the upcoming 2012 unSUMMIT. The event was co-founded by Mark Neuenschwander, President of the Neuenschwander Company and the 2010 recipient of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) Lifetime Achievement Award. This year it’ll be held in Anaheim and it provides healthcare professionals a unique opportunity to speak with a variety of health care systems in various stages of barcode technology use.