Effect of Bar-Code Technology on the Safety of Medication Administration

Bar Code Medication Administration Technology: A Systematic Review of Impact on Patient Safety When Used with Computerized Prescriber Order Entry and Automated Dispensing Devices

“…Of the 37 articles selected for full-text review, 5 met the inclusion criteria for evidence synthesis. Three of these studies used direct observation to determine medication errors, [10][11][12] whereas the other 2 studies relied on self-reporting. 13,14 Direct-observation studies are considered more reliable than those based on self-reporting 15 ; however, both types of data collection are commonly used in studies examining medication errors.…”

“…13,14 Direct-observation studies are considered more reliable than those based on self-reporting 15 ; however, both types of data collection are commonly used in studies examining medication errors. Three of the studies investigated the outcomes when BCMA technology was added to existing ADD and CPOE systems, 10,11,13 one study examined a setting where all 3 technologies were implemented at once, 12 and the final study investigated a setting where BCMA was added to existing ADDs, followed by implementation of CPOE.…”

“…[10][11][12] Two of these studies concluded that BCMA reduced the absolute rate of nontiming errors by 4.6% 11 or 4.7%, 10 but their findings on timing-related medication administration errors were conflicting.…”

“…11 In the ICUs, none of the accuracy indicators improved after implementation of BCMA, except noncompliance with medication charting, which declined from 24.4% to 6.7% (p < 0.0001). 11 Poon and others 10 were the only authors to conclude that BCMA reduces wrong time errors. This type of error, defined as medication administration that was early or late by more than 1 h, decreased from 16.7% to 12.2% (RRR 27.3%, 95% CI -21.0% to -33.8%; p = 0.001).…”

Safety Incidents in the Primary Care Office Setting

“…43,47,[50][51][52][53][54] Our findings emphasize the importance of verification procedures and support barcode scanning of medications during dispensing and using generic medication names (rather than brand names) to reduce mistakes from inattention or distraction and communication errors. [55][56][57] …”