Electronic Medication For Patient Safety

Electronic medication for patient safety.
Many lives are lost every day as a result of avoidable medication errors. Adoption of proven technology to eradicate these errors is, therefore, a major priority (Gozdan et al., 2018). At our facility, we believe that technology can enable us to meet our targets of improving the safety of our patients. One such technology is the use of barcode medication administration systems that have greatly reduced medication errors.
Barcode medication administration verifies and approves the medication process. It ensures that the right patient receives the correct dosage and at the appropriate time. It also makes sure that the right procedure of medical administration is followed. The system just requires a nurse to scan his or her employee’s identification card in order to identify themselves and then the barcode on the patient’s wristband to identify the patient correctly. After identifying the personnel and the right patient, the nurse then scans the barcode on the medication in order to identify the drug correctly. The data captured is analyzed with the aid of computer software where warnings or approvals are then generated.
One of the major barriers to the widespread adoption of the barcode’s technology is costly. They are expensive to purchase, install and maintain. Medication overrides can also be partly attributed to the barcodes (Shah et al., 2016). Problems with the equipment include aging scanners and improved type of barcodes that are not recognized by the system.

Problems with equipment can be eliminated by using quality barcodes scanners and printers. This equipment is also prone to power failure, which is the most common problem in our hospital.
To improve patient’s safety, processes should be put in place to closely and continually and closely observe the efficiency of barcodes medication and ensure that the change in technology does not lead to unwanted circumstances that could jeopardize patient’s safety. I, therefore, recommend that the hospital should always have a backup drive other than depending on the written medication forms that are no longer being used in most hospital settings. The backup drive will allow for nurse to be able to see the medications that are due even if they cannot be scanned. The backup drive should allow for the medication record to print with bar codes for each medication so they can be scanned and the correct time entered once the system is up and working again.
References
Gozdan, J. Rn, M., CNS, & MSN. (2018). PATIENT SAFETY: Using technology to reduce medication errors. NURSING 2018, 39(6), 57-58.
Shah, K., Lo, C., & Babich, M. (2016). Bar Code Medication Administration Technology: A Systematic Review of Impact on Patient Safety When Used with Computerized Prescriber Order Entry and Automated Dispensing Devices. INNOVATIONS IN PHARMACY PRACTICE: SOCIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE PHARMACY, Vol. 69, (5), 394-402.