B A R C O D E-EN A B LED

P O IN T-O F-C A R E
TEC H N O LO G Y

Nurses play a vital role in the

medication-use process,
ranging from their involvement
in the communication of
medication orders
to the administration of
medications.

Administration of medications can

be a labor-intensive and errorprone process.
Studies show that
38% of medication errors occur
during the drug administration
process
20% errors occur through doses
of medication administered

M ed ication Error Facts:

7,000 Americans die annually

$5.6 million per hospital
Pediatric patients experience harmful
medication errors three times more
often
than adults
ICU patients suffer more life
medication errors than any other
patient population

R IS K FA C TO R FO R M ED IC ATIO N ER R O R S :

*Increase of drugs in
the last 10 years

*Staff shortages

*Sound-alikes,
look-alikes

One form of technology that will

have a great impact on
medication safety during the
administration process is BPOC
Technology.

What is a BAR CODE?

bar code (often seen as a single word,barcode) is the

small image of lines (bars) and spaces that is affixed to
retail store items, identification cards, and postal mail to
identify a particular product number, person, or location.
The

code uses a sequence of vertical bars and spaces

to represent numbers and other symbols. A bar code
symbol typically consists of five parts: a quiet zone, a
start character, data characters (including an optional
check character), a stop character, and another quiet
zone.

Abarcode readeris used to read

the code. The reader uses a laser
beam that is sensitive to the
reflections from the line and space
thickness and variation. The reader
translates the reflected light into
digital data that is transferred to a
computer for immediate action or
storage.

S ym b olog y
is the "language" of a bar
code, and its what the
scanner must read. The
bar code is a collection
of white spaces and
lines
thatrepresentan
item, and that your
computer uses to look
up the record of
information about that

JCAHO NATIONAL PATIENT

SAFETY GOALS:
Number One goal-- Improve the accuracy of patient
identification- use at least two patient
identifiers (neither to be patients room
number) whenever taking blood
samples or administering medications
or blood product

Consumer Awareness

Patient Safety
(medication safety, blood transfusion
safety, laboratory specimen collection
safety)

B A R C O D E TEC H N O LO G Y

Series
Series

of
of vertical
vertical lines
lines and
and spaces
spaces that
that
scanner
scanner converts
converts to
to electrical
electrical signal
signal
understood
understood by
by computer
computer

Used
Used

in
in grocery
grocery stores
stores since
since 1970s
1970s

Can
Can

store
store alpha
alpha and
and numeric
numeric and
and
information
information

Provides
Provides

accurate,
accurate, fast,
fast, realtime
realtime data
data
collection
collection and
and entry
entry

Offers
Offers

exceptional
exceptional security
security

B A R C O D E M ED IC ATIO N
A D M IN IS TR ATIO N TEC H N O LO G Y
Nurse barcode scans name tags
o Nurse barcode scans patient identification bracelet
o Patient MAR appears on bedside laptop or handheld
device
o Scheduled and PRN meds are scanned
o Warnings/alerts are issued when indicated
o Automatic documentation of
administration activities
o

Other
Other levels
levels of
of functionality
functionality include:
include:

increased
increased level
level of
of accountability
accountability

up-to-date
up-to-date drug
drug reference
reference information
information from
from online
online
medication
medication libraries
libraries

customizable
customizable comments
comments or
or alerts
alerts and
and reminders
reminders of
of
important
important clinical
clinical actions
actions that
that need
need to
to be
be taken
taken when
when
administering
certain
medications
administering certain medications

monitoring
monitoring the
the pharmacy
pharmacy and
and the
the nurses
nurses response
response to
to
predetermined
predetermined rules
rules or
or standards
standards for
for the
the rules
rules engine
engine
such
such as
as alerts
alerts or
or reminders
reminders

reconciliation
reconciliation for
for pending
pending or
or STAT
STAT orders
orders

capturing
capturing data
data for
for the
the purpose
purpose of
of retrospective
retrospective analysis
analysis
of
of aggregate
aggregate data
data

verifying
verifying blood
blood transfusion
transfusion and
and laboratory
laboratory specimen
specimen
collection identification

Negative effects of BPOC system:

Nurses
Nurses were
were sometimes
sometimes caught
caught off
off guard
guard by
by the
the
programmed
programmed automated
automated actions
actions taken
taken by
by the
the BPOC
BPOC
software
software
The
The BPOC
BPOC seemed
seemed to
to inhibit
inhibit the
the coordination
coordination of
of
patient
patient information
information between
between prescribers
prescribers and
and nurses
nurses
when
when compared
compared to
to a
a traditional
traditional paper-based
paper-based system.
system.
Nurses
Nurses find
find it
it more
more difficult
difficult to
to deviate
deviate from
from the
the routine
routine
medication
medication administrative
administrative sequence
sequence with
with the
the BPOC
BPOC
system.
system.
Nurses
Nurses feel
feel that
that their
their main
main priority
priority is
is the
the timeliness
timeliness of
of
medication
medication administration
administration because
because the
the BPOC
BPOC requires
requires
nurses
nurses to
to type
type in
in an
an explanation
explanation when
when medications
medications
were
were given
given even
even a
a few
few minutes
minutes late.
late.
Nurses
Nurses use
use strategies
strategies to
to increase
increase efficiency
efficiency that
that
circumvented
circumvented the
the intended
intended use
use of
of BPOC.
BPOC.

Th e follow in g typ es of error

cou ld occu r:

Omissions
Extra dose
Wrong drug
Wrong dose
Unauthorized drug
Charting errors
Wrong dosage form