Introduction
Patient safety is a complex medical issue. Medical errors in health care constitute a significant portion of quality and patient safety issues. To help reduce these errors and improve patients' safety at the point of care, the healthcare providers need to embrace and adopt technologies. Many errors at the point of drug administration usually go unnoticed (Leape, Bates, Cullen, et al., 1995). Prescription errors rank among the top. Barcode technology has shown promise in reducing prescription errors and patient misidentification (Seibert, Maddox, Flynn, & Williams, 2014). This paper is about the need to introduce the technology in a care setting with a focus on its implementation. Barcode technology in healthcare has not been widely implemented, and various reasons have been adduced for the slow rate of implementation. Cooperation is needed to align vendors, care providers, and patients for the seamless application of the technology.
Prescription orders are sometimes wrongfully administered. Thus, safety measures are necessary to prevent the wrong administration of medication order. A pharmacy unit is a place in the care setting where barcode verification technology can reduce or eliminate errors. The technology can also be applied, in specimen labeling, medication administration identification, dietary management, blood transfusion verification, and respiratory therapy treatment at the bedside. Through barcodes, the “rights” associated with drug administration and prescription can be minimized significantly. Wager, Lee, and Glaser (2013) noted that “bar-code e-mar systems have the potential to address many patient safety issues, particularly those relating to correctly identifying patients and medications” (p.154). Through barcode scanning, the electronic medication administration system (eMAR) will assist care providers in performing automatic documentation. This approach will improve providers’ time management. Poon et al. (2010) noted that "the bar-code eMAR system is more likely to prevent errors associated with memory lapses or mental slips in executing a therapeutic plan" (n.p). Thus, the right medication gets the correct dose, patient, at the right time, and site.
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Implementation Strategies
Change in an organization requires proactive and transformational leadership and management. The communication of the plan and reason for the change is central to successful implementation. Thus, this proposal shall pursue the path of first allowing the staff and management see the need to invest and embrace the technology. Patient’s safety is a function of providers’ efficiency. The focus in this change process is patient's safety through barcode medication administration and identification. Planning, implementation of strategies, collaboration, and proactive leadership initiative will adopt the ADKAR model. One will make messaging a priority to clarify challenges and the need for uptake. According to Dehmlow (2015) to have stability in a change implementation, consistency in messaging is necessary. Thus, feedback, before and during the implementation is one area to will be given emphasis.
People have some change-related fear, and they exhibit it through some form of resistance. The type and timing of change also reflect the resistance. Organizational culture, perception towards information technology and administrative policy may impede the implementation. Personnel training is a component of this technology implementation process. Providers' budget has strong tendencies to limit the introduction of new technologies. The perception that people have about the expected change may also affect the process. Others who may not know the barcode technology may be lacking, something that this project seeks to address through further training and education.
Conclusion
Patient safety is a complex issue in professional practice. Progressive introduction, adaptation, and implementation of barcode technology is one of the ways for preventing errors of omission and commission in medication administration and identification. Barcode technology is applied in many areas of the care setting and is capable of reducing the amount of time used in documentation. Through this technology, prescription and administration errors will be significantly reduced. Introducing and implementing the technology has its challenges. Human factors, fear, perception, organizational culture, training, and budget will be considered.
References
Dehmlow, M. (2015). Editorial Board Thoughts: The importance of staff change management in the face of the growing "Cloud" Information Technology and Libraries . doi: 10.6017/ital.v35i1.8965
Leape, L.L., Bates, D.W., Cullen, D.J, et al. (1995). Systems analysis of adverse drug events: ADE prevention study group. Journal of America medical association 274 :35-43.
Poon, E.G., et al. (2010). Effect of bar-code technology on the safety of medication administration. New England Journal of Medicine 362 :1698-1707 doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa0907115
Seibert, H.H., Maddox, R.R., Flynn, E.A., & Williams, C.K. (2014). Effect of barcode technology with electronic medication administration record on medication accuracy rates. American Journal of health-system pharmacy. 71 (3):209-18. doi: 10.2146/ajhp130332.
Wager, K., Lee, F., & Glaser, J. (2013). Health care information systems: A practical approach for health care management (3rded.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
