Improving Transfusion Safety in the Operating Room With a Barcode Scanning System Designed Specifically for the...

Area of Science:

• Anesthesiology
• Health Informatics
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Manual patient identification and pretransfusion safety checks for blood transfusions are error-prone.
• Compliance with manual systems is particularly low in urgent operating room settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of an automated electronic barcode scanner system on pretransfusion verification and documentation.
• To evaluate the system's effect on transfusion documentation compliance and error detection.

Main Methods:

• An interrupted time series analysis evaluated documentation compliance before and after barcode scanner implementation.
• An electronic barcode scanning system was developed and implemented in 58 operating rooms.
• Provider surveys assessed opinions on the electronic system's usability and impact.

Main Results:

• Compliant documentation increased from 19.6% to 74.4% post-implementation.
• The system detected 45 potential transfusion errors and averted 36 mismatched blood product transfusions.
• 98% of transfusions utilized the electronic system, with providers reporting improved safety, workflow, and documentation.

Conclusions:

• A barcode-based system effectively improved transfusion documentation compliance and patient safety.
• The system averted potential transfusion errors and became the preferred safety checking method.
• Seamless integration with electronic medical record systems (Metavision and Epic) was achieved without workflow disruption.