Barcode Scanning Policy

Bar code scanning is used primarily to track medicines administered to patients in hospitals. Upon admission, a patient receives a wristband bar code, which must be scanned when medicine is administered or tests performed.

Background

• As of 2007, approximately 20 percent of U.S. hospitals had implemented bar codes. Other hospitals still relied on nurses to write or type notes each time a patient received medicine. The bar codes were implemented in hopes of saving lives and reducing the financial cost of medical errors that result from improper administration of medicine.

Benefits

• A 2010 study indicates that bar code usage prevents about 90,000 serious medical errors each year and reduces the mortality rate by 20 percent. A nurse scanning a patient's bar code can see immediately when medicine was last administered and can double check that the patient receives the correct prescribed medicine. An alarm sounds if the medicine doesn't match the prescription or if it is being administered at the incorrect time. If too much time has passed between doses, nurses receive an alert to check the patient.

Cost

• Cost is the biggest drawback to implementing a bar code policy. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimates the cost of implementing a bar code policy at $1,799 per bed and another $1,000 for maintenance. Zebra Technologies Corporation speculates that this expense is offset by the cost of medical errors. As of 2010, no formal cost-benefit analysis studies were available, but plans to conduct one at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston were underway.