Using a bar-coded medication administration system to prevent medication errors in a community hospital network

Abstract

Medical errors are widely acknowledged as a major threat to patient safety. Medical errors result in 44,000–98,000 deaths per year—more deaths than those caused by highway accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS.1 The leading cause of error-related inpatient deaths is adverse drug events (i.e., medication errors that result in patient harm). An estimated 7,000 deaths are associated with medication errors annually.2 Medication errors that result in preventable adverse drug events occur during all stages of the medication-use process: ordering (56%), transcribing (6%), dispensing (4%), and administration (34%).3 Several promising health information technologies may help to reduce the number of medication errors that occur. Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) may prevent ordering and transcription errors, automated drug-dispensing systems and robotics may minimize dispensing errors, and devices used at the point of care may mitigate administration errors.4,–6 The use of technology is not a panacea, however, and it may have its own problems. Recent studies suggest that computerized technologies may actually facilitate medication errors and could be associated with up to 20% of medication errors in hospitals.7,–10

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