Barcode medication administration (BCMA) is the use of barcode technology to improve the administration of medication. Health care workers use this technology to confirm a patient’s medication at bedside to ensure that the five rights of medication administration including the correct dose, patient, time, drug, and route. The barcode medication administration technology also helps prevent repetition of human errors in the administration of medications at health care facilities. The technology allows for comparison on the medication being administered and the medication ordered by the patient. The BCMA technology was first implemented in the year 1995 at a health care facility in Kansas, United States called the Colmery-O’Neil Veteran Medical Center. This annotated bibliography aims to discuss the impacts of barcode medication administration technology on the safety of patients. Read more

Annotated Bibliography

Thompson, K. M., Swanson, K. M., Cox, D. L., Kirchner, R. B., Russell, J. J., Wermers, R. A., … & Naessens, J. M. (2018). Implementation of bar-code medication administration to reduce patient harm. Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes, 2(4), 342-351. doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2018.09.001

This article discusses the impacts of implementing bar-code medication administration technology on reducing the medication administration errors that result to patient harm. The authors states that medical errors are common and are categorized into prescription errors, dispensing errors, administration errors, and transcription errors. The article also posits that approximately 20 percent of all medical orders result to medical administration errors. To prevent the rate of medical administration errors in the inpatient practice, this article implemented the barcode medication administration (BCMA) technology. The authors noted that the BCMA technology helps eliminate the medical administration errors as it relies on a mental checklist throughout the whole process of medication administration.

A total of fifty inpatient facilities employed the BCMA technology between September 2008 and October 2010. An average of 500,000 inpatient medications were administered per month within the period of study. After its implementation, the barcoding technology reduced the reported medical administration errors by 43.5 percent. The authors noted that the rate of medication errors also decreased from 0.65 to 0.29 per every 100,000 medication after the implementation of the BCMA technology. The barcode medication administration technology is, therefore, recommended because enhances the safety of patients by reducing medication administration errors.

Shah, K., Lo, C., Babich, M., Tsao, N. W., & Bansback, N. J. (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. The Canadian journal of hospital pharmacy, 69(5), 394.

This article provides insights on the impact of barcode medication administration technology on the safety of patients. The authors of this article define medical error as an event involving administration of drugs that may lead to patient harm. Medical errors increase the patient’s length of stay in a health facility by an average of 4.6 days and also increases the cost of care. The BCMA

Naidu, M., & Alicia, Y. L. Y. (2019). Impact of Bar-Code Medication Administration and Electronic Medication Administration Record System in Clinical Practice for an Effective Medication Administration Process. Health, 11(05), 511.

Truitt, E., Thompson, R., Blazey-Martin, D., Nisai, D., & Salem, D. (2016). Effect of the implementation of barcode technology and an electronic medication administration record on adverse drug events. Hospital pharmacy, 51(6), 474-483.