HIST 2100: The Social Impact of Barcode Technology in Healthcare

This essay discusses the social impact of barcode technology and electronic medication systems in healthcare, focusing on their use, benefits, and challenges. It highlights the improvements in patient care, accuracy, and efficiency brought about by barcode scanning devices, leading to enhanced patient safety and better communication among healthcare professionals. The essay also addresses factors supporting and affecting the implementation of barcode medication administration (BCMA) systems, including planning, resources, staff training, and potential safety issues like reduced patient care time and new types of errors. The conclusion emphasizes the positive relationship between electronic medication management and social change, underscoring its role in improving healthcare systems and patient outcomes.

Running Head: HISTORY ESSAY 0
History essay
10/19/2018

HISTORY ESSAY 1
The history essay brings about the discussion on the technology, which had major
social impact or transformed the communication system, and saved millions of lives. Here, it
is a draft that includes the discussion of a technology that is used is known as ‘Barcode
technology and electronic medication system’, implemented by the health professionals in the
healthcare settings. Thus, the essay will include the use, impact on the society, or patients in
context to the healthcare, providing benefits to the administration or challenging the
technology.
Discussing the social impact of the electronic prescribing and medication
administration system it has been found that it improves the patient care and treatment
leading to enhanced quality of social environment of any country. Bar code reader is the
device that can read and output printed barcodes to a computer. In healthcare systems,
implementation of the bar code scanning device improves the management and
administration of medication provided to the patients. The bar code system in the hospitals
improved usefulness, accuracy, consistency, efficiency, time-management, and the ease of
the performance of the medication process in the healthcare (Leung et al., 2015). It resulted
into enhanced safety of the patients, and the nurses perceived that the process became less
prone to the errors, and those which even occur during the process are easily detectable. This
in turn benefits the society, as it involves the culture of safety aspects of patients in the
healthcare, enhances the documentation and communication between the doctors, health
professionals and the consumers or patients. Thus, indirectly it improves the levels of society
by saving life of millions of people, and leads to efficiency of the system in the nation
(Seibert et al., 2014).
Electronic medication system and the BCMA (Bar code Medication administration),
has changed the definition of technology in the modern era of healthcare system. Previously,
there was manual system to record the details of the patients, and their medication or
treatment. Now, with the increased complexities, there is an advancement of the technologies
used in the hospitals and the major one is the use of bar code scanning system. The use of
BCMA improved and provided an infrastructure for the front-line nurses to collaborate with
the doctor leaders, in the healthcare settings and other health institutions (Westbrook et al.,
2015). It was meant to improve the communication, to integrate and improve the healthcare
practices, which led to the betterment of the society as a whole. Thus, in the field of medicine
use of electronic medication or BCMA, led to the enhancement of the health-system,

HISTORY ESSAY 2
governance and decision-making in the country, hence exerts a positive influence on the
society (Shah et al., 2016).
Here, after discussing the positivity on the society and the welfare of the public due to
the effective healthcare system, some factors support and affect the implementation of
BCMA, and the electronic medication system in the healthcare. Factors supporting through
the perspective of stakeholders these factors were adequate planning (including clinicians),
resources and governance, appropriate staff training (Nguyen, Bellucci & Nguyen 2014). A
user-friendly system that provides integration and coordination among members and
professionals was another factor. Other auxiliary factors include strong leadership amongst
the clinicians/doctors, effective communication and the positive experiences of the
technologies used in the past years (Staggers et al., 2015).
Implementation of the electronic medication system led to some of the safety issues of
the patients in the healthcare. They included reduced time for the patient care was one of the
most important issues that occur on the use of computerised medication management and
administration. Adverse drug events or errors were one of the major complaints from the
people or users through interviews, & surveys (Truitt et al., 2016). Other factor, which
affected or resulted due to the implementation of electronic system, was reduced
communication or interaction between professionals, as they became dependent on the
machines, computers, or other tools to evaluate and assess the medication to their patients.
New types of errors also identified such as incorrect selection from the drop-down menu, and
workarounds (Schnock et al., 2017).
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that implementation of
electronic medication reduces different types of errors, improves patient safety, effective
treatment, enhanced system of the healthcare settings. Hence, there is a positive relationship
between the electronic medication administration & management to the patients with the
social change, i.e. society in any country.

HISTORY ESSAY 3
References
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Poon, E. G. (2015). A safe practice standard for barcode technology. Journal of
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Schnock, K. O., Dykes, P. C., Albert, J., Ariosto, D., Call, R., Cameron, C. & Husch, M. M.
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with computerized prescriber order entry and automated dispensing devices. The
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