A 2009 article in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association noted some of the barriers that currently stand in the way of migrating to barcode label printers and label dispensers within hospital pharmacies and the overall healthcare industry.
However, it also pointed out the great benefits that barcode printers and a barcode strategy could have on the healthcare industry in terms of patient safety and an ideal means of preventing accidents and injuries.As the article stated, there are errors that can occur at many stages of the medication
To help with this prevention strategy is the use of barcode printers and label dispensers. As the research article explained, more pharmacies and hospitals are using pharmacy bar code scanning technology because it provides a way to address medication errors. It also helps to ensure that the correct medications are dispensed within patient care units and that they carry a bar code that can be scanned before a dose is administered to a patient. And, the findings suggested a significant decline of 85% in the rate of medication dispensing errors by using barcode technology. Additionally, implementing barcode strategies in hospital pharmacies has shown to also produce positive results, such as a positive financial return for the hospital while not impacting on the workflow.
Other countries have experienced their own positive results for adopting barcode printers and label dispensers for their pharmacy operations. A 2009 article for Health in Wales noted positive response from switching to 2D barcode labels for prescriptions. The Health Minister concurred, stating, “Barcoded prescriptions are an excellent practical solution for the electronic transfer of prescription information that provide a more modern, safe and efficient service between the patient’s GP and a community pharmacy.” It has also resulted in a better pricing process and enhanced workflow through an automated process.
First Steps for a Barcode Strategy
Some of the recommendations for adopting a barcode strategy that incorporates barcode printers and label dispensers was offered by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which could have application for hospital pharmacies around the world include:
- Introduce priority drug list – Determine which drugs have the highest error rates when being dispensed and put these on the list of drugs to transfer over to a barcode printer system and maintain an inventory tracking system to track which drugs have received the new labelling strategy. From there, other drugs can be migrated over to the barcode system as the process is established and has proven to be effective.
- Expand applications – Once the dispensing process has proved to work within the barcode strategy, it is then recommended that the system be expanded to other applications to eventually fully automate the healthcare process for the hospital.
- Research and implement the printing system – It is important to gather all the data necessary before selecting a barcode printing system. That means looking at liable sizes, the volume of printing necessary, and the variable data that will need to be printed. From there, you can look at thermal printer models, which are particularly suited to bar coding as they offer excellent print quality and are easy to use.
These are the first steps towards a barcode strategy that can revolutionise the healthcare industry in terms of safety, privacy, tracking and metrics and cost controls.
