Barcode Medication Administration

This document discusses the benefits and risks of using barcode medication administration system in healthcare. It also emphasizes the importance of effective teamwork and communication to prevent errors. The author suggests that while the use of nursing informatics is exceptional, extra efforts and crosschecking mechanisms should be developed to avoid fatal consequences regarding patient’s healthcare.

Running head: BARCODE MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION
BARCODE MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION
Name of Student
Name of University
Author’s Note

1BARCODE MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION
Question 1
In order to improve the outcomes of patient care and support the nursing practice, by
developing and maintaining medical systems and data, the nursing field incorporates information
sciences, computer and nursing, altogether which is known as Nursing Informatics (McCormick
and Saba, 2015). The priority areas in the Nursing informatics, to internationally promote health,
are mobile health, patient safety, big data sciences, patient engagement, clinical decision support,
clinical implementation/evaluation, electronic quality measures, usability, data exchange,
interoperability and education & competencies. From the given case study of Computerization
can create safety hazards: A Barcoding near miss by McDonald, C, I think that the disorientation
created in between the bar coded wristbands of patients Mr. P and Mr. D (both suffering from
different illness) can result in fatal consequences in terms of patient’s health. For me, with the
technology advancement, the need of nursing informatics is extensively important to improve the
healthcare. At the same time, the evolution of nursing informatics requires extra attention as to
avoid severe consequences regarding patient’s healthcare. The use of barcoded wristbands is
useful to maintain, transfer and extract the patient’s health records and the hospital officials trust
the barcoded wristbands blindly, so if there are any unintentional mistakes like the one in the
case, the consequences will be suffered by the patient, which could be hazardous (Bonkowski et
al., 2013). Therefore, I think the use of nursing informatics is exceptional and remarkable but
when it comes to the patient’s healthcare and treatment, extra efforts and crosschecking
mechanisms should be developed in order to escape any fatal consequences.

2BARCODE MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION
Question 2
Effective teamwork and communication is essential for the treatment of patients and
requires collaboration of the whole organization. The use of barcoded wristbands is effective for
the healthcare treatment but it requires extra efforts of cross checking the patient’s information
for efficient medications of patients. In the given case, after the realization of the unintentional
disorientation and exchange of barcoded wristbands of patients, Mr. D and Mr. P by the clerk,
the clerk printed new wristband for Mr. P and then immediately collaborated with the general
ward and informed the nurse about the disorientation. The nurse then gives Mr. D a new
barcoded wristband. The hospital officials, nurses, doctors and staffs collaborate to form a
system, to provide effective and efficient healthcare treatment (Reeves et al., 2017). Different
interdisciplinary teams are founded to maintain the treatment and medications and other vital
information required for the effective healthcare cure of the patient (Ohashi et al., 2014). The
interdisciplinary teams also assists in dealing with the issues created by the use of barcoded
wristbands, like in the given case, where the clerk collaborated with the nurse in general ward
and requested her to do the needful, to avoid the fatal consequences of the unintentional mistake.

3BARCODE MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION
The use of barcoding system is beneficial for the effective cure of the patients.
Installment of barcoding system is both reliable and cost effective (Coustasse et al., 2015) and it
ensures the patient’s safety by the following points:
 It helps in eliminating the probability of human and hospital care errors
 The amount of errors in the data entered manually is high than the data transferred
through barcodes (Truitt et al., 2016)
 The training time and expense of the nurses and staffs is reduced
 The information is transferred in minutes with the use of barcodes
 Cost effective and easy to print
 It helps in the reduction of error caused by the pharmacy
 Misreading of the chart of patients can be eliminated
 It helps in eliminating transcriptions, which are incomplete or improper
 With the help of barcode scanner, many patients’ information can be uploaded
 It helps in improving care of patient by escaping medical or healthcare errors

4BARCODE MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION
Question 3
Yes, the technology of barcoding system should be implemented in every health
institution for effective and efficient healthcare outcomes.
According to the Seibert et al., (2014), the use of barcodes system will reduce the
treatment and medication errors. The author evaluated the effects of barcodes system on the
instance of medication errors by conducting a survey between the two community hospitals. The
errors due to medications were observed for two times, one before the implementation of
barcoding system and one after the implementation. The results showed significant increase in
the medication accuracy rates of both the hospitals, but most importantly there were no new
types of errors in the treatment procedure. The frequency of both the human and hospital care
errors were prevented with the help of barcoded system in both the hospitals. The
implementation of the barcoding system were found to be more efficient and effective than the
programs of voluntary reporting at analyzing and intercepting errors in order to prevent the errors
from patient’s reach.

5BARCODE MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION
References
Bonkowski, J., Carnes, C., Melucci, J., Mirtallo, J., Prier, B., Reichert, E., ... & Weber, R.
(2013). Effect of barcode‐assisted medication administration on emergency department
medication errors. Academic Emergency Medicine, 20(8), 801-806.
Coustasse, A., Cunningham, B., Deslich, S., Willson, E., & Meadows, P. (2015). Benefits and
barriers of implementation and utilization of radio-frequency identification (RFID)
systems in transfusion medicine. Perspectives in health information management,
12(Summer).
Ohashi, K., Dalleur, O., Dykes, P. C., & Bates, D. W. (2014). Benefits and risks of using smart
pumps to reduce medication error rates: a systematic review. Drug safety, 37(12), 1011-
1020.
McCormick, K., & Saba, V. (2015). Essentials of nursing informatics. McGraw-Hill Education.
Reeves, S., Pelone, F., Harrison, R., Goldman, J., & Zwarenstein, M. (2017). Interprofessional
collaboration to improve professional practice and healthcare outcomes. Cochrane
Database of Systematic Reviews, (6).
Seibert, H. H., Maddox, R. R., Flynn, E. A., & Williams, C. K. (2014). Effect of barcode
technology with electronic medication administration record on medication accuracy
rates. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 71(3), 209-218.

6BARCODE MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION
Truitt, E., Thompson, R., Blazey-Martin, D., Nisai, D., & Salem, D. (2016). Effect of the
implementation of barcode technology and an electronic medication administration
record on adverse drug events. Hospital pharmacy, 51(6), 474-483.