Barcode

Barcode

A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...

 technology in healthcare is the use of optical machine-readable representation of data in a hospital

Hospital

A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

 or healthcare setting.

Dating back to the 1970s, there has been a continual effort among healthcare settings to adopt barcode technology. In the early 2000s, published reports began to illustrate high rates of medical error (adverse events) and the increasing costs of healthcare. As a result, the desire for barcoding technology in healthcare has grown as a realistic and applicable solution. Ranked first in 2007 and second in 2008 in the Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society

Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality, safety, cost-effectiveness, and access to healthcare through the best use of information technology and management systems. Originally founded in 1961 as the Hospital...

 (HIMSS) Leadership Survey, HIMSS placed high priority on the use of barcoding technology to reduce medical errors and promote patient safety.

Moving forward, the last decade has demonstrated the success and implementation of barcoding technology whose reliability has been proven through broad-scale implementations within the healthcare setting.

Barcode technology has it benefits as it increases patient safety. A study conducted in 2010, found that barcode usage prevented about 90 000 serious medical errors each years and reduced mortality rate by 20%

Barcoding in healthcare is used in the following areas:

• Medication management: delivering the right drug to the right person at the right time;
• Drug identification: bar coding may help eliminate counterfeit or expired drugs from being distributed;
• Infusion safety: bar coding blood and other products may allow for reduction of medical error
  Medical error
  A medical error may be defined as a preventable adverse effect of care, whether or not it is evident or harmful to the patient. This might include an inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis or treatment of a disease, injury, syndrome, behavior, infection, or other ailment.-Definitions:As a general...
  
   and increase patient safety
  Patient safety
  Patient safety is a new healthcare discipline that emphasizes the reporting, analysis, and prevention of medical error that often leads to adverse healthcare events. The frequency and magnitude of avoidable adverse patient events was not well known until the 1990s, when multiple countries reported...
  
  ;
• Patient identification: makes sure that the correct patient is receiving the correct treatments;
• Specimen collection: ensures that the correct patient is receiving the correct analysis;
• Surgical instrument sterilization: barcodes may be implemented on these devices to identify which instruments have been sterilized.

Barcoding and the FDA

On February 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had ruled that barcodes must be used on certain human drugs and biological products. Barcodes must be linear in nature and must be readable by barcode scanners.

Medication

Medication

A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease.- Classification :...

 barcodes must have specified information for drug identification. Barcode information on these items must include the National Drug Code

National Drug Code

The National Drug Code is a unique product identifier used in the United States for drugs intended for human use. The Drug Listing Act of 1972 requires registered drug establishments to provide the Food and Drug Administration with a current list of all drugs manufactured, prepared, propagated,...

 (NDC) number of the drug, a 10-character identification number for the medication. The NDC contains the name of the medication, dosage and drug company that produces the medication. Additional information that may be included in medication barcodes may include the expiration date and lot number of the medication.

Blood and blood components manufactured on or after April 26, 2006, must have barcode labels as well. This is used to minimize the risk of patients receiving the wrong treatment in healthcare facilities. According to the FDA, a minimum of four information pieces are required for the label, which includes the following:

• Unique identifier for the facility from where the blood is coming from;
• Lot number identifying blood donor;
• Product code; and
• Blood type
  Blood type
  A blood type is a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells . These antigens may be proteins, carbohydrates, glycoproteins, or glycolipids, depending on the blood group system...
  
   (ABO and Rh).

See also

• Barcode
  Barcode
  A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...
  
  
• Bar Code Medication Administration
  Bar Code Medication Administration
  Bar Code Medication Administration is a barcode system designed to prevent medication errors in hospitals.It consists of a barcode reader, a portable computer with wireless connection, a computer server, and some software...
  
  
• Medical errors
• Patient safety
  Patient safety
  Patient safety is a new healthcare discipline that emphasizes the reporting, analysis, and prevention of medical error that often leads to adverse healthcare events. The frequency and magnitude of avoidable adverse patient events was not well known until the 1990s, when multiple countries reported...