Early,
C., Riha, C., Martin, J., Lowdon, K. W., & Harvey, E. M. (2011). Scanning
for safety an integrated approach to improved bar-code medication
administration. Computers, Informatics,
Nursing, 29(3), 157-164. doi:10.1097/NCN.0b013e3181fc416d
These
authors review a study on how bar code scanning reduces medication errors, cost
and length of stay (LOS). This study was conducted on a total of seven small
and large hospitals that had Bar Code Medication Administration (BCMA) in use.
They looked at statistics related to bar code scanning, overrides and
medication errors. Every month they improved the BCMA system by making a single
change. The changes that were made month to month were near miss events,
leadership education, adding thermal printers, educating the staff, changing to
insulin pens, upgrading the wireless system, obtaining improved scanners and
requiring verification by a second person when there was a mismatch. By
increasing BCMA compliance they reduced the cost related to medication errors
by $2,860,752 dollars and decreased the LOS by 1476.6 days within a year. This
study showed that by improving the BCMA system more nurses were less likely to
override the BCMA system which resulted in less medication errors (Early, Riha, Martin, Lowdon & Harvey, 2011). This study
shows that when safety precautions are used properly better patient outcomes
can be expected.
