Barcode Medication Errors

Based on the articles that were found related to barcode medication administrating and reduction in medication errors, the relationship between them displayed a reduction in the amount of medication errors and increased the nurses awareness of near misses. One study found that RNs in nursing homes appeared to be less aware of the potential for errors to occur during medication administration and 90% of residents were exposed to at least one potential for medication administration error prior to barcode- administration, with wrong time being statistically significant (Szczepura, et. al, 2011). After implementing barcode-administration in care home across multiple studies, it reveled a decrease in medication errors, including giving medication

al, 2011). Most articles found that stress during medication administration decreased when using a barcode system and they were satisfied with using this method to properly identify patients and provide safe medication administration. One study reported, “although technology systems that increase patient safety and clinical quality may not always increase nurse efficiency, they can relieve anxiety and enable nurses to provide safer, better care – which has a positive impact on job satisfaction, and potentially on nurse recruitment and retention.” (Sodorff, M. & Galusha, C., 2004).

Within the scope of our findings, there were no major conflicting ideas about the use of electronic barcode medication-administration systems. One study even reported that there were no new types of error in the medication administration process after implementing the barcode medication-administration system into their care (Seibert,H.H., et. al, 2014). There were however some differences in the type of barcode scanning systems used in the research, which can cause some conflicting ideas as to which system was better for reducing medication errors or more user