Bar Code Medication Administration
This paper shines a light on barcode medication administration. The lack of administration or inappropriate administration of medication has been a cause of millions of deaths every year. This could either be because of incorrect medication, improper transmission, or mishandling of medication. To significantly reduce the chances of errors and number of deaths per annum, it became quite mandatory to bring changes to the medication administration paradigms. Therefore, a new concept, the Bar Code Medication Administration, was put forward by a nurse in the US in 1995. To prevent the most common medication errors in hospitals and verify medications, this new technology combined the electronic medication administration system with bar code verification technology. This came to be known as barcode eMAR in more common terms.
The purpose of this document is to give deep insight into the most useful technology for medication administration and make people aware of the benefits of this technology in such a way that they start incorporating it into their medication administration systems. The benefits of this technology are fetched, which cannot be denied by the people having the slightest hint of wisdom. The BCMA systems verify the ‘5 rights’ of medication, which include the right patient, right drug, right dose, right time, and right route to electronically reduce medication errors. The benefits to the healthcare sector are immense, but when it comes to the nursing sector, it works in the best possible manner.
Apart from introducing the bar code medication administration, the document also talks about examples of bar code medication administration, one’s personal experience, and the impact of this technology on the healthcare sector, especially the nursing sector.
Example of Bar Code Medication Administration
The bar code medication administration (BCMA) system consists of a desktop computer with a reliable wireless connection, software, a secure server, and a bar code reader. The basic reason for designing this technology was to assist the nurses in the healthcare sector and keep a check regarding the right medication being given to the patient. With the use of this technology, there has been a good amount of reduction in deaths and medication errors caused by negligence or lack of knowledge.
All the bar codes on medication contain special guidelines on the bar code packaging issued by the federal government, which must always be followed. The bar codes themselves have the most valuable and detailed information hidden within them (Wideman, Whittler & Anderson, 2018). The labeler issued by the Food and Drug Administration is stored in the first few digits, while the rest of the bars contain the product code that is the medication, and the last digits display the packager’s code for the medication.
In simple words, the working of the bar code medication administration system could be explained as follows. In a nursing setup, before giving any medication to the patient, the nurse scans the bar code on the wristband of the patient to verify the identity of the patient so that the medication can be given accordingly. The next step is to check the medication, scan the bar code on the medication, and check it with the software to make sure that the right medication is being given to the right patient, at the right dose along the right route at the right time (Huang & Lee, 2008). These five rights of medication administration must be followed under all circumstances. These systems also generate real-time warnings and make reports on the go as they are connected to the electronic medication administration system. This makes the tracking of errors easy and helps in avoiding mistakes in the future. Also, it increases nursing staff satisfaction, enhances community relations, and satisfies the patient immensely. This has been a major breakthrough in the healthcare sector, especially the nursing sector.
Medication administration does not only provide medication to the patients, but it also makes sure how the medication reacts for an individual and whether it is beneficial for the patient or not. As an attendant or well-being proficient, the nurses are prepared to know solution impacts. Knowing how prescriptions travel through the body and what impacts the medicine has or what unfavorable impacts may happen is essential for avoiding pharmaceutical blunders. Solution setbacks can happen at any place in the conveyance framework, for example, checking, regulating, apportioning, repacking, or recommending (Poon et al., 2010). The most widely recognized reason for mistakes that happens while controlling a medication is poor correspondence, issues perusing headings, medicinal shortened forms or hand composing misjudged, poor strategies or lessons, work pressure (most normal), and absence of item information.
It is hard to lessen or dispose of pharmaceutical blunders totally when data is truant, incorrect, opposing, or basically not revealed. It isn’t correct that each pharmaceutical blunder will cause hurt, yet consider the undetected mistakes that will. The undetected blunders regulating prescription make evaluating the viability of meds mistakes testing and difficult to counteract. Any medical attendant who has made a medication blunder knows how unpleasant the circumstance can be. The expanding requests and the measure of patients amid workload can build the odds of tranquilizing blunders. Being exhausted can influence fixation and fitness, which can be exacerbated by whimsical working hours and stress, while at the same time, smugness can likewise prompt oversights. While at the same time, nurture weakness is ordinarily referred to as the cause of medication mistakes, others incorporate indecipherable doctors’ penmanship. Medication mistakes likewise include erroneous conclusions, overdosing, and under-dosing. Checking counts and distinguishing any deficit in your insight is a qualified guarantee to keep from committing an error.
A few other examples of using bar codes for medical assistance in the healthcare sector include the identification of patients, management of medication, collection of specimens and safety for blood infusion, sterilization and identification of surgical instruments, and identification of drugs.
Personal Experience
While working in the IT industry for the healthcare sector, there were many times when I came across the bar code medication administration systems. The use of desktop computers, wireless networks, software, and scanning devices makes it closely linked to our work domain. This technology was very warmly welcomed by all and still looks promising. The impacts it is making are quite phenomenal and irreversible. The nursing staff is extremely overjoyed to have received such a great invention and assistance with their everyday tasks. The use of technology in the identification of medication and patients and the testing of it with the help of software to make sure the five rights of medical administration are met is one of the achievements in itself. However, there are some of the challenges faced by the system and the impacts of such administration systems which must not be overlooked.
The major challenge faced by the bar code administration systems is to make sure the staff is properly trained to use the systems. They know the right use of the device and have a clear understanding of what they are actually doing. Moreover, the operational costs of the system are quite high for the majority of the hospitals, so at times, they are reluctant to install the BCMAs. Also, the staff might be hesitant to use the system as this might be an added burden to their already hectic schedules. The addition of reports, scanning, and then waiting for the software to reply might be burdensome for them. Therefore, the system might not generate the desired results and destroy the sole purpose of the system.
Moreover, if the healthcare sector completely relies on barcode medication administration and reduces the use of human brains to the maximum, then it would pose some serious threats. Since the bar code is a device, it can wear off anytime, the information stored might get corrupted or hacked anytime, or there might be some other issue with it. In case of emergencies, if the system becomes unavailable or the bar code stops scanning, then there should be leverage to allow the use of the human brain since that is always above all man-made devices and concepts. Also, the nurses are a trained set of professionals who will work according to their best understanding under all circumstances.
The bar code medication administration innovation has appeared to be a financially savvy mediation and is suggested for safe pharmaceutical practices; however, it is just successful at reducing drug organization mistakes when it is executed to help the nursing work process in accomplishing the five rights. Boundaries to the utilization of setup conventions for safe solution organization ought to be perceived and tended to with a specific end goal to avert workarounds and hazardous staff practices.
Conclusion
The bar code medication administration has been a major breakthrough when it comes to the healthcare sector, especially the nursing setup. The use of such high-end, mature, and reliable technology for the identification of patients, the drugs to be given, and how the nursing staff should utilize it is surely a big achievement for the healthcare sector. With the use of this technology, there has been a good amount of reduction in deaths and medication errors caused by negligence or lack of knowledge. The right use of this technology will help in further assisting the patients, and the enhancements will reduce the death rates drastically. Before the right use comes, the right training of the healthcare and nursing staff is required. They must be properly trained to use such systems to get better outcomes.
However, with the rapidly changing demands and the advancements in technology, there might be a shift in technology, and some other technology might take over the barcode in the long run. The shift in technology might not be an easy one, but no matter which technology overtakes it, there will be a significant need for bar codes for more stationary jobs. The benefits of using bar codes for medical administration systems outweigh all the other technologies and resources; therefore, it has a long way to go.
References
Wideman, M., Whittler, M., & Anderson, T. (2005). Barcode Medication Administration: Lessons Learned from an Intensive Care Unit Implementation. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK20569/ Accessed 31 July 2018
Poon, E., Keohane, C., Yoon, C., Ditmore, M., Bane, A., Levtzion-Korach, O., & Moniz, T. (2010). Effect of Barcode Technology on the Safety of Medication Administration | NEJM. Retrieved from https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa0907115 Accessed 31 July 2018
Huang, H., & Lee, T. (2008). Impact of Barcode Medication Administration on Nursing Activity Patterns and Usage Experience in Taiwan. Retrieved from https://journals.lww.com/jonajournal/Abstract/2008/12000/Impact_of_Barcode_Medication_Ad ministration.8.aspx Accessed 31 July 2018
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