Scanning their way to safety: Bar codes help reduce errors in medication

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

River Park LPN Marlene Young uses eMAR technology to scan patient Omagene Beck’s wristband to ensure she gets the proper medication. (Charles W. Johnson photo)

The Federal Drug Administration announced last Wednesday the government will soon be requiring bar codes, similar to the ones used in supermarkets, to be placed on the labels of thousands of drugs in an effort to prevent hospital medication errors which are blamed for an estimated 7,000 deaths annually.

Government estimates also indicate the long-anticipated regulation could help avoid close to half a million side effects and medical errors over the next 20 years, which could result in financial savings of $93 billion over the same period.

Though the new regulations will require all facilities to adopt the system, some hospitals, like Warren County’s own River Park Hospital, have already implemented such a program well ahead of the FDA regulations.

All HCA-owned hospitals in Middle Tennessee, Southern Kentucky and the Chattanooga area that make up the TriStar Health System are now utilizing a bar code system called eMAR (electronic medication administration record). TriStar began using eMAR in its hospitals in May 2002 and completed phasing in the technology at the end of 2003.

“We are pleased that our commitment to patient safety and technology keeps TriStar hospitals on the cutting-edge of healthcare,” said Kim Lewis, Director of Information Technology and services for HCA’s MidAmerica Division.

Lewis said medication errors represent one of the largest areas of preventable injury to hospital patients. “We want our patients to be able to completely trust that the medications they receive will help treat and cure them, not hurt them,” she said. “Using eMAR helps ensure patients receive the right medications at the appropriate dosage and intervals.”

Here’s how eMAR works. When physicians prescribe medications, their written orders are scanned to pharmacy, transcribed by a pharmacist and then entered into the eMAR system. The system checks to make sure the patient isn’t allergic to the drug and that it won’t cause problems with other medications.

Once a prescription is entered into the eMAR system, each dose is shrink wrapped and assigned a bar code which links the medication to the patient’s orders entered in eMAR.

The eMAR technology also performs other safety checks and electronically updates the patient’s records. It is linked to similarly bar coded patient wrist bands and ensures accuracy to the five “Rs” of medication administration – the right patient, the right medication, the right dose, the right time and the right route of administration.

Lewis said only about 1 percent of hospitals nationwide have bar code systems like the FDA has now mandated, but Lewis said the decision to use the system was an easy one for HCA, even though the company had to develop its own bar code labels since drugs don’t currently have them.

“We realized the impact we could have on patient safety,” Lewis said. “We realized that medication errors were a huge problem nationwide, and we felt that through the use of some technology that we could address the majority of medication errors.”

Lewis said ensuring patient safety is of paramount importance to HCA, and its move to implement this technology early on is an example of the company’s dedication to that goal.

“We did it because it’s the right thing to do,” Lewis said.