| Medication errors are associated with a significant | | | | of patient receiving either wrong medication or |
| amount of deaths. According to the Institute of | | | | wrong dosage. It improves caregiver's efficiency |
| Medicine, around 1.5 million medication errors occur | | | | without significantly impacting nursing workflow. |
| every year that result in about 7,000 deaths. | | | | Improved patient safety reduces adverse events |
| Astonishingly, 70% of these errors are preventable. | | | | and the associated healthcare cost. Increased health |
| Medication errors can occur at any stage of | | | | care efficiency and patient safety can translate into |
| medication use that includes ordering, transcribing, | | | | revenue from the hospital's perspective. |
| dispensing, administering, and monitoring. The right | | | | Barriers |
| medication should be given to the right patient, at | | | | While bedside verification systems using traditional bar |
| the right time, in the right dosage and via the right | | | | codes have shown good success in reducing |
| route. Error at any stage of the administration of | | | | medication administration errors, these systems have |
| medicine may lead to serious consequences. | | | | not achieved widespread acceptance. These may be |
| The Joint Commission, a healthcare regulatory | | | | due to failure of bedside barcode identification |
| authority, set National Patient Safety Goals to | | | | resulting from human error, handheld device error, |
| improve patient safety. "Improving the accuracy of | | | | system error and wristband error. |
| patient identification" topped this list of goals in 2008. | | | | There might be resistance by the staff to embrace |
| The goal requires the "use of at least two [patient] | | | | new technology. This may stem from communication |
| identifiers when providing care, treatment or | | | | gap, preconceived notion about the technology or |
| services." Two patient identifiers are used while | | | | resistant to accept changing roles. Software glitches, |
| administering medications and blood products or | | | | hardware problem associated with the scanning |
| taking blood and other samples for clinical testing. The | | | | instrument are other barriers related to technology |
| FDA recommends a bar code solution to decrease | | | | that may affect implementation of bedside |
| the errors and risk of medication event. | | | | medication verification. |
| Bar code and radio frequency identification (RFID) are | | | | Caregivers must be trained to use these technologies |
| two of the technologies that can be used for | | | | before they could be implemented. Language and |
| bedside medication verification and reduce errors that | | | | computer illiteracy makes it more challenging and may |
| might occur during administration of medicine or blood | | | | require additional training resources to overcome this |
| products. | | | | obstacle. |
| How does it work? | | | | Overcoming these barriers |
| Patient and the medication data are present in the | | | | Caregivers must be adequately trained by identifying |
| wrist band of the patients, medicine labels and the | | | | individual skill level and training requirement. Any |
| nurses ID. These codes (barcodes/RFID) allows for | | | | negative perception of the technology should be |
| confirmation of the identification of patient, | | | | clarified through proper communication wherein the |
| medication, dose, time and route of administration. | | | | benefits of the technology can be emphasized to all |
| Before administering a medication or a blood product, | | | | the personnel handling the patients. Technology |
| the caregivers or the nurse administering the | | | | limitation should be acknowledged and vendors should |
| medicine scan these barcodes to verify the details of | | | | be actively involved in addressing the technology |
| the medicine and the patient. Using this it is possible | | | | barriers. |
| to alert them in case of any discrepancies in dose, | | | | In conclusion, implementation of technologies such as |
| identity of patients, route, and medication or if the | | | | bedside medication verification although may appear |
| dose of medication is not due. Additionally, other data | | | | cumbersome, can be of high value when the safety |
| such as the batch number, expiry dates, etc can also | | | | of the patient is considered as the utmost priority of |
| be obtained from the barcodes. | | | | any treatment procedure. With the advent of science |
| Implementation of Bedside Medication Verification | | | | and technology, sleeker and smarter instruments will |
| Implementation of bedside medication verification can | | | | soon be available that would make the verification |
| eliminate errors that might occur during administration | | | | process much simpler. |
| of the medicine, for example by reducing the chance | | | | |