Bar Code Medication Administration Essay Example

Introduction

Medication error commonly occurs in hospitals, and it usually harms patients. The consequence of many medication errors is preventable adverse drug events (ADEs). 20 percent of the preventable adverse drug events are life-threatening (Leapfrog Hospital Survey, n.d.). A research by the Institute of Medicine indicated that 7,000 deaths that occur every year are caused by medication errors alone. Most of these errors occur during the administration or transcription of the medication. Such errors can be prevented by technology, which has been created to verify the prescriptions. This paper is going to discuss the bar-code verification technology, its impact on both general healthcare delivery and nursing care, and provide a personal experience.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Description of the Technology

Barcode medication administration (BCMA) system is electronic scanning systems, which is designed to capture medication errors at the administration point (Macias, Bernabeu-Andreu, Arribas, Navarro, & Baldominos, 2018). If a nurse has to administer medication, he or she will scan a barcode on the wristband of a patient to confirm the individual is the correct patient to be treated. After that, the nurse will scan the bar code that is placed on the drug to confirm that it is the correct drug, the correct dose, administered through the correct route and at the correct time.

The Barcode medication administration works well when used together with an electronic medication administration record (eMAR) systems. While using the two together, the eMAR will act as the communication interphase. It means that it will record management of drugs into a certified Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology.

Impact of the Technology on the Delivery of Healthcare in general

Basically, the barcode medication administration has had a positive effect on the delivery of healthcare. The system has improved medication and patient safety due to a reduction in medication errors. The safety has been possible because the system offers a valuable verification of medication administration.

Additionally, the system ensures that all the five rights of medication administration are followed. "These rights are the right patient, right medication, right dose, right time, and right route of administration" (Kelly, Harrington, Matos, Turner, & Johnson, 2016, p. 32). Many studies have shown proof of the impact of the barcode medication administration. A study by Kelly et al. (2016) showed that medication administration errors have been reduced by 86 percent after the introduction of the barcode medication administration. On the other hand, patient satisfaction has been increased by the use of this system. Patients are now guaranteed good services once they visit various healthcare institutions.

Impact of the Technology on the Nursing Care

In nursing care, the precision of drug administration has increased significantly. When a nurse is administering medication, the system will verify the five fights of medication, and when a contraindication is identified between a patient's orders and the medicine scanned, the nurse will be alerted immediately. This will prevent administering a wrong medication, thereby increasing nursing care accuracy.

Moreover, the system does away with the confirmation bias in nursing care. In the absence of the system, the selection of the wrong product results from confirmation bias. Therefore, the system eliminates the confirmation bias commonly evident in nurses. Besides, nursing staff job satisfaction is improved by the barcode medication administration. This is because the work of nurses is made easier by the system, and the issue of paperwork is eliminated.

Example of the Topic

An excellent example of a healthcare institution that has successfully implemented the barcode medication administration is the Colmery-O'Neil VA Medical Center. The system has effectively been put to use in the long-term care and acute care sections of the Veterans Administration Hospital (Wideman, Whittler, & Anderson, 2014). When the system was introduced in February 2000, nurses were able to easily record electronically the administration of medications. At the time, this was carried out at the bedside. Real-time networking technology, as well as barcode technology, enabled the center to change the accuracy of medication administration effectively. After successful implementation at the Colmery-O'Neil VA Medical Center, the system was later on used across the Veteran Affairs (VA) healthcare institutions, and it has now been transformed/advanced.

Personal Experience

This topic of barcode medication administration impacted me personally when I was recruited as a nurse in a healthcare facility where I reside. The healthcare facility was a busy one because it was a 150-bed facility. Other nurses and I had to care for many patients. Even with the presence of many patients, caring for these patients was very easy because of the presence of the barcode medication administration. Caring for the patients, especially when it came to drug administration took only a few minutes. This is because all we had to do was to scan a barcode on the wristband of patients and the system showed the medication or care that the patient was to receive. Also, all the drugs had barcode that was also scanned to confirm whether the medication is correct. The system was good since it made nursing care to be efficient and effective.

Conclusion

Barcode medication administration system is electronic scanning systems designed to capture medication errors at the administration point. It has positively impacted the delivery of healthcare and nursing care. This is through improving medication safety and patient safety, ensuring that all the five rights of medication administration are followed, improving patient satisfaction, increasing the precision of drug administration, eliminating confirmation bias, and enhancing nursing staff job satisfaction. The new insight about barcode medication administration will influence my nursing care positively because it will integrate precision in my work. Also, it will reduce liabilities attributed to medication errors, and make my job a bit easier due to reduced paperwork.

References

Kelly, K., Harrington, L., Matos, P., Turner, B., & Johnson, C. (2016). Creating a culture of safety around bar-code medication administration: an evidence-based evaluation framework. Journal of Nursing Administration, 46(1), 30-37.

Leapfrog Hospital Survey. (n.d.). Factsheet: Bar Code Medication Administration. Retrieved from http://www.leapfroggroup.org/sites/default/files/Files/BCMA_FactSheet.pdf

Macias, M., Bernabeu-Andreu, F. A., Arribas, I., Navarro, F., & Baldominos, G. (2018, January).

Impact of a Barcode Medication Administration System on Patient Safety. In Oncology nursing forum (Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. E1-E13).

Wideman, M. V., Whittler, M. E., & Anderson, T. M. (2014). Barcode medication administration: lessons learned from an intensive care unit implementations. 2013.