The Impact of Barcoding Technology on Reported Medication Errors

Purpose:
The purpose of this research study was to examine the impact of barcode medication administration technology on incidence and severity of reported medication errors in a hospital setting. Also, the research attempted to determine whether any decreases in rates were statistically significant.

Background/Significance:
The use of bar-code medication administration technology is on the rise in acute care facilities in the U.S. The technology is purported to decrease medication errors that occur at the point of administration. How significantly this technology affects actual rate and severity of hospital medication errors is unknown.

Methods:
This descriptive research study examined the rate and severity of hospital medication errors before, during, and after the implementation of bar-code medication administration technology in a community hospital setting. Errors that occurred in each category of the medication administration process, as well as each level of severity, were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical means (t-tests for dependent means). The study is longitudinal, as the data was collected annually in an “ex post facto” manner through the pre-implementation, implementation, and post-implementation phases of bar-coding technology.

Results:
Errors associated with adminstration decreased steadily in every time period and reached statistical significance in the final year of the study. Relative to severity of reported errors, no significant changes were noted in errors that reached the patient. Conversely, a statistically significant increase in potential errors (near misses) was noted by the final year of the study.

Conclusions and Implications for Practice:
Bar-code medication administration technology decreased the rate of errors over time, most likely as a result of decreases in wrong dose and wrong patient errors. Severity of errors did not change over time. However, there appears to have been an increase in reporting of potential errors.