bar coding

Hi everyone,

My hospital just starting using pump-based bar coding. I work in an ICU and I just love it. I know many hospitals are using the bar coding for IV's and medication administration. I was wondering if you think this is a good safety feature.

On general principles, YES. :)

Bar-coding is an error-proofing technique that is commonly used in industry. It sounds like your hospital is investigating error-proofing techniques, which is good. Is your hospital looking into the ISO 9000 standard for quality management systems? (It is very common in industry and a few health care organizations have adopted it as well.)

http://qhc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/11/3/261

"Medication errors occur frequently and have significant clinical and financial consequences. Several types of information technologies can be used to decrease rates of medication errors. Computerized physician order entry with decision support significantly reduces serious inpatient medication error rates in adults. Other available information technologies that may prove effective for inpatients include computerized medication administration records, robots, automated pharmacy systems, bar coding, "smart" intravenous devices, and computerized discharge prescriptions and instructions." [emphasis is mine]

I had it thrown into my ICU and hated it..too time consuming, bug ridden, badly set up, etc. I'm sure it could be done better but it did NOT work in my ICU where pharmacy is slow, we had to hand enter stats, nows constantly etc...then got counseled for overriding the system or entering late cuz our patients needed our immediate care. ARGGH.

When medications and systems become the priority and the biggest time drain on me, patient care takes a second seat...and IMO this doesn't jive with my ICU philosophy.

Glad it works some places. I'm glad JCAHO has reconsidered the mandate on barcoding personally.