Hospitals use bar codes to improve patient safety

The U. uses high-speed prepackaging machines, and prescriptions are dispensed to a carousel where they are scanned to see it's the correct product. Then a label is printed with the patient's name and other relevant information. It's double-checked by the pharmacist before it's sent to the floor. If something seems wrong with a physician's order, pharmacists are duty-bound to question it and resolve it, Herzog said.

Hospitals also make increasing and extensive use of programs that check interactions between different medications and compare dose ranges with what's ordered. If something's off, the pharmacist is notified automatically, immediately. Physicians who place orders electronically are notified nearly instantly if they make a dosing error.

The Food and Drug Administration, in response to medication errors and patient safety concerns, has mandated that all hospitals use electronic prescribing within the next couple of years. No more hard-to-read handwritten prescriptions. Bar codes are on their way to becoming standard, as well.

The word "standard," however, points out one of the challenges. "One of the challenges is to make sure we have the scanners and technology that can read different types of bar codes," Herzog said. That's a big issue when selecting new software and hardware. And there is, as yet, no national standard.

---

E-mail: lois@desnews.com