Med Admin using Bar Code Scanning

[DayOhioRn]

My hospital uses the computerized Epic charting system :typing, and we went live in Oct. 2006. In March we are going to incorporate the Bar Code scanners for medication administration. This requires the nurse to scan not only the medication, but the patient's ID band EVERY TIME you administer ANY type of medication.

My question is....has anyone here dealt with this system, and how is it going for you?:uhoh21:

Feedback is welcome in any form!

[suanna]

Not an expert on EPIC but we have another system we went "live" with about 3 years ago. For the most part we hate it-the meds are always entered wrong, the "either IV or PO meds" both come up to be given at different without ever indicating the alternative route was used 1 hr so at times the patient gets double doses, 50% of the time either the patients bar code dosen't scan or meds bar code dosent scan and you end up overriding. Overriding is so common that you don't even think about not overriding a " med not ordered" error message- you get it 5 times a night per patient. I have nurse friends who use the EPIC system at another hospital and LOVE it. Flexible, accurate, easy to use, adaptive.... These are not modifiers I have ever seen applied to the system we are using. Good luck!

[dnnc52]

we are gertting ready to go live with the Dolphin and the hand scanner. We are all worried,except the greener nurse. We lod timers are just scratching our heads and facing the reality that it just the way it is going to be and nothing we can do about these type changes. These kind of changes sure make me want to retire ASAP. To me it seems give us more satff and save the new technology for the real future. When most of us vintage folks are out of the system. These younger folks don't recall a times without internet and home computers. So this Gen-Tech group is always ready for the newest advancements. I have used simular system in the past. But only with a unit dose system where we just had medcarts and pharmcy replaced them. However we have 2 locked med rooms with metal cabinets that house our bins. It will be like a search and find mission for med call. The advantage of the unit dose is that all you meds are usually right there in a short supply not a bunch of overflowing bins. Also according to the Institute of safe medication practice. They feel that nurse should not be cutting pills, or adding pills to make the correct dosage. This should be availble by pharmacy standards. example say you have an order for Cyclosoprine 125mg, rather then send 3-4 of 100mg and 3-4 of 25mg they should have both pills in a bottle or bag togetheras a mix dose or 125mg instead of the nurse sifting through the entire med bins. Okay took way too much time on this. But I am very interested on the type of delivery system you folks have as far as the way you are provided your medications>>> thanks