Healthcare barcode effect on Patient's safety

Running Head: HEALTHCARE BARCODE EFFECT ON PATIENT'S SAFETY
Healthcare barcode effect on Patient's safety
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Abstract
The increasing number of medication errors in hospital setting has long been an issue of concern. The use of barcode technology was integrated in the healthcare system to reduce the number of these medication errors. It is argued that incorporating these errors in the healthcare system can give rise to other issues, such as dissatisfaction of the nursing staff, reluctance of the staff toward new technology, and process management errors. However, education of the nursing staff and smooth integration of the barcode technology in the existing system can help in increasing the efficiency of the nursing staff and reducing the overall cost of healthcare and medication errors. It is found that implementing barcode technology can help in identifying, tracking, and eliminating the medication errors. More research is needed to prove the effectiveness of the barcode system in the home settings.
Background Information
A medication error is defined as "any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the healthcare professional or consumer" CITATION Sus09 \p 103 \l 1033 (Fowler, Sohler, & Zarillo, 2009, p. 103). These errors can be made at any stage of treatment from prescription to administration of drugs and is not limited to the errors made during they stay of a patient at the hospital. However, most of the medication errors occur during their stay in the hospital which can lead to fatal injuries and at times, even death. It has been found that an error in administration is made in 19% of all the doses administered by the professional healthcare of which 7% of the errors are likely to have an adverse effect on the health of the patient CITATION Joa08 \l 1033 (Ross, 2008).
Purpose
The number of medical errors made by the nursing staff is extremely high and is becoming a serious health concern. The use of barcode technology can significantly bring down the number of these errors as it standardizes the medical process leaving little room for errors. However, implementing a whole new system itself can be a problem as the nursing staff may not be able to accept the change which can result in new problems. The aim of this paper is to identify the causes of medical errors and the potential problems that might occur during and after the installation of the barcode technology.
Literature Review
Barcode Technology
The need to make use of barcode technology in the healthcare system arose in the late 90`s when the incidents of a large number of medical injuries were linked with medical errors causing the healthcare professionals to give wrong medications. These medical errors may be caused during the transcription of medical records, and wrongly identifying the patients ...