Potential use of bar codes to implement automated dispensing quality assurance programs

Bar code-based systems have automated many counting, tracking, and sorting functions in health care delivery services. We designed and briefly tested the feasibility of a bar code-based dispensing quality assurance system for a hospital outpatient pharmacy. The use of bar codes to verify the identity of the dispensed product required an extra few seconds processing time for each prescription but did not increase markedly the processing time when compared to a control period. In addition to verifying product identity, the system checked the manufacture's expiration date to reduce the risk of delivering outdated medications to the patient. The on-site test period for this feasibility model was relatively short (one week) and no actual dispensing errors were detected. However, when the system was presented with 100 different prescription forms containing 50 randomly sequenced, precontrived dispensing errors, the system identified all medication errors and outdated products. As shown in other studies, bar code-based systems have the potential to capture information not effectively recorded using manual methods. We suggest they should be considered by pharmacists interested in automating inventory management and work flow functions or establishing automated dispensing quality assurance programs.