Bar Codes Cut Drug Errors in Study

Using bar codes can help reduce hospital drug errors, a study shows. The study was done at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The hospital is affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Under the hospital’s new system, each patient’s wristband has a bar code. So does each container of medicine. Prescriptions are put into the patient’s electronic chart. Before nurses give medicines, they scan the bar codes for the patient and the drug. The system tells them if it’s the wrong medicine or if they are giving it too soon. Nurses also get alerts if a dose is overdue. Researchers looked at hospital units that used the new system. They were compared with units that still used a system without bar codes. Errors dropped “dramatically” in units with the new system, a researcher told HealthDay News. Errors related to timing of medicines fell 27%. Other errors dropped 41%.