Are bar codes efficiently?

create culture of less compassion fatique in the workplace so nurse can focus

Proper staffing so nurses aren't running like crazy and taking short cuts because there isn't enough time to do it without a short cut or two.

Equipment that works correctly!

Less interuptions, less noise, less caos in the nursing station!

Are Thread Titles Sufficiently?

We switched to bedside bar coding at my facility and med errors dropped. If I were to be honest, I might even be able to cite an instance or two where beside barcoding prevented me from making an error I might otherwise have made.

Oh. The title had me thinking that this thread was going to be about the efficiency of running a code in a bar. There's a dark joke in there about pouring a stiff one, but I'm not going to go there.

I have very minimal exposure to the bar code scanning system. One hospital I was a student at was just rolling it out. It seemed to be rather cumbersome and inconvenient. I've found most electronic systems to rarely work efficiently nor reliably. I still like paper.

I agree that better staffing would be an excellent way to reduce errors. Other types of errors (e.g. failure to notice a downward spiral in VS) would be avoided too.

My first questions is...who wrote the OP--Strange (punctuation and) italics for no reason...not to mention the adverb in the title.

Sorry, I could not resist. Anyway, at the end of the day, the nurse still has to acutally give the meds. No matter how many safety measures are in place, the nurse can still make an error if the nurse overworked, short on time, pressured, careless, etc...

One RN proponent for its use told me, "it's the last line of defense against med errors."

I agree to a point. Imo, the last line of defense is your own eyeballs.

I would be curious how many med errors occur, where there is bar code scanning in place, d/t bypassing the scanning system. I had it at my last job and currently do not have it. As much as it took me a little while to get used to, I honestly can say that I miss it. I don't necessarily miss the batteries constantly running down, not being able to find a hand-held device or having to repeatedly re-boot it so that I could get stuff done, but all in all, I like the extra check that it made (it even told me about orders that were put in while I was running around and was not aware of despite it only being 10 minutes since I checked the computer and went to give meds) and I like the instant charting that is accomplished.

I like barcoding. I always wanted to work as a grocery store cashier and scanning the patient and medications fills the void.

I get annoyed when the scanner won't connect to the internet and I have to walk around the room (or even out into the hallway) holding it up in the sky to get a connection.