Effect of barcode technology with electronic medication administration record on medication accuracy rates

Area of Science:

• Healthcare technology
• Patient safety
• Clinical informatics

Background:

• Medication administration errors pose a significant risk to patient safety.
• Electronic health records and advanced technologies are increasingly adopted to mitigate these risks.
• Barcode-assisted medication administration (BCMA) coupled with electronic medication administration record (eMAR) systems aim to enhance accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of BCMA-eMAR technology on medication administration error rates.
• To assess changes in medication administration accuracy following BCMA-eMAR implementation.
• To compare the effectiveness of BCMA-eMAR with traditional error reporting methods.

Main Methods:

• A pretest-posttest nonequivalent comparison group design was employed.
• Medication administration accuracy was observed in various units across two community hospitals before and after BCMA-eMAR implementation.
• Data were collected at baseline, and approximately 6 and 12 months post-implementation.

Main Results:

• Hospital 1 showed a significant increase in overall medication accuracy from 89% to 90% (p=0.0015).
• Excluding wrong-time errors, accuracy improved from 92% to 96% (p=0.000008) at Hospital 1.
• At Hospital 2, accuracy improved from 93% to 96% (p=0.015) when wrong-time errors were excluded.

Conclusions:

• BCMA-eMAR implementation led to significant improvements in medication accuracy across most units.
• The technology did not introduce new types of medication administration errors.
• BCMA-eMAR, combined with direct observation, proved more effective in error interception and prevention than voluntary reporting.