The feasibility of bar code scanning in the healthcare industry

The high frequency of medication errors often results in harm to patients and unnecessary cost; because of this their prevention is a worldwide priority for health systems. Patient rights are protected by the privacy and security rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). These rules hold the healthcare industry accountable during the collection, viewing, and dissemination of patient information. A patient’s digital record or Electronic Health Record (EHR) is much more difficult to secure and maintain in today’s information age as compared to the prior paper generation. EHR system should address five core functionalities: • improve patient safety, • support the delivery of effective patient care, • facilitate management of chronic conditions, • improve efficiency, • and feasibility of implementation. Secondly, the barcode scanning solution in healthcare has the propensity to advance solutions that will assuredly, not paint the administrator into a corner with its advent, but offer considerable solutions to repeat occurrences or offenses in quality. Bar code scanning is ideal, because clinical decision making, is a complex process that depends on human ability to provide undivided attention and to memorize, recall, and synthesize huge amounts of data all vulnerable areas. For this purpose, IT systems can improve access to pieces of information, organize them, and identify links between them. Thirdly, the HIPAA privacy rule requires health care providers to ensure “appropriate safeguards to protect the privacy of personal health information”, according to Electronic Health records online. This rule must be followed each and every time a patient’s information is accessed. However, it doesn’t matter whether that information is on paper or in a digital format, security measures properly implemented and in place. According to online dictionary, the HIPAA security rule specifically regulates how a patient’s electronic health information is “created received, used, or maintained.” As a result of the HIPPA quality initiative, bar-coding in health care will not "open Pandora's box", but instead act as a catalyst used to aide in helping to meet or exceed customer expectations. Fourthly, the demand now is for implementation of Systems that use information technology (IT), such as computerized physician order entry, automated dispensing, barcode medication administration, electronic medication reconciliation, and personal health records, which are also, vital components of strategies to prevent medication errors. Bar-coding in healthcare is not beyond financial, moral, or intellectual means; however, there are certain concerns, such as the high costs of such systems that can be attained through economic incentives and government policies and or federal grants. Fifthly, bar code scanning is morally, ethically and legally acceptable inasmuch as the bar-coded medication administration (BCMA) systems require that the nurse who administers the medication at the bedside should scan the patient's identification bracelet and the unit dose of the medication being administered. The implementation of a control mechanism in place of this nature assures accountability and therefore offers the type of guarantee we desire to have in the healthcare industry. The bar- coding solutions in healthcare primarily will require some heavy financial sacrifice and perhaps even some silent investors from the surrounding communities. Nevertheless, IT systems specifically designed of health care bar-coding, can have deliver an abundance of Return on Investment (ROI) bottom line. In addition, according to the global language of business, automatic identification systems (bar code or RFID) can have a variety of application, including point-of-care scanning to match product data to patient data, verification of patient identity via a wristband, enabling the introduction of robotic dispensing systems, recording implant serial numbers in patient records and central registries, tracking and tracing of individual instruments through decontamination, stock control and supplies management, tracking assets throughout a network of facilities and much more. All these applications and systems enable the realization of associated health and economic benefits: reducing medication errors, preventing counterfeiting, saving costs and increasing the Healthcare supply chain efficiency and transparency. The cost of a barcode proposed solution is variable depending on the size and complexity of the project. According to Pub Med, online the cost of implementing and operating BCMA including electronic pharmacy management and drug repackaging over 5 years is $40,000 (range: $35,600 to $54,600) per BCMA-enabled bed and $2000 (range: $1800 to $2600) per harmful error prevented. However, automated data collection solutions, including bar-coding and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, can help hospitals and acute healthcare facilities ensure accuracy, accountability, and patient safety inside the four walls. In conclusion, the cost is indeterminable if the problem were to go on unsolved. Research and studies have shown the number of adverse drug events prevented using BCMA was estimated by multiplying the number of doses administered using BCMA by the rate of harmful errors prevented by interventions in response to system warnings. The BCMA identified and intercepted medication errors in 1.1% of doses administered, 9% of which potentially could have resulted in lasting harm. References Markle Foundation. Connecting for Health. A Public–Private Collaborative. Final Report. 1 July 2003. Available at http://www.connectingforhealth.org/resources/final_phwg_report1.pdf (last accessed 9 February 2009.