Barcode Scanning Error

Barcode Scanning Prevents Medication Administration Errors “The six rights of medication administration are: the right drug, the right dose, the right route, the right time, and the right patient” (Burchum & Rosenthal, p. 5). Since the implementation of barcode scanning of medications, it has reduced medication errors tremendously compared to paper-based medication administration. Research after research has shown that medication administration errors have declined, thus reducing harm or adverse effect to the patient. Pilot testing was done on numerous hospitals proving it has not just reducing medication errors, but it also helped on reducing the amount of work nurses have to deal with when it comes to medication administration and documentation.

An experiment was conducted by Dwibedi et al. (2011) in an attempt to answer this question. Data from April 18, 2008 to May 16, 2008 for the use of PBMA were collected. Then data from May 6, 2009 to June 26, 2009 for the use of BCMA were collected. About ten months in between May 2008 and April 2009 were not collected because nurses needed time to learn and perfect the use of the BCMA implementation before it was able to use in the experimentation to create a more accurate calculation. Data for both the use of PBMA and BCMA were compared to see if there is really a major difference in time saving while keeping patients safe (Dwibedi et al., 2011). This experiment was conducted in a hospital with 624 staffed beds. Of the 624 beds, 127 were in the ICU. The times spent with patient and medication administration were observed and timed. Some of the nursing activities observations include medication administrations, direct patient care (beside nursing: vital signs, programing or checking IV pumps, preparing drugs, inserting IV catheters, hanging IV fluids or medications), indirect patient care (non-bedside activities: observing monitors, assist physicians), miscellaneous (handwashing, conversing with patients), and other (Dwibedi et al., 2011). During the PBMA, the average time spent on just administration of medication was 59.8 seconds; direct patient care was 47.4 seconds; indirect patient care was 13.0 seconds; miscellaneous was 29.1 seconds; and other 2.3 seconds. Compared that data to the use of BCMA, the average time spent on medication administration was 45.5 seconds; direct patient care was 182.3 seconds; indirect patient care was 9.2 seconds; miscellaneous was 32.7 seconds; and other was 1.1 seconds (Dwibedi, N., Sansgiry, S.S., Frost, C.P., Dasgupta, A., Jacob, S.M., Tipton, J.A., & Shippy, A.A.,