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Closing the loop: barcode scan for drug administration at bedside patient

European Statement

Patient Safety and Quality Assurance

Why was it done?

This solution, an integrated module of our electronic health record (EHR) (Millennium Oracle Cerner), allows the computerised validation of the administration of medication in real-time at the patient’s bed by scanning a bar code identifying the medication or the infusion.

What was done?

The implementation of a solution allowing the secure administration of medication (oral or injectable) at the patient’s bed is one of the latest processes we have put in place to improve the security of the medication circuit and the quality of patient care within our establishment.

How was it done?

Our pharmacy has a robot for automated dispensing of unit forms of medication by over-packaging (PillPick Swisslog). A unique code of each oral medication is affixed to each sachet and this code, once scanned, will be used to verify the concordance between the physical medication in the hands of the nurse dispensed by the pharmacy and the medication prescribed in the EHR.
For infusions, a tool of our EHR makes it possible to generate a barcode label taking again information of the prescription as well as patient identity and that one is affixed on the infusion after reconstitution/dilution the barcode being scanned at the time of the installation.

What has been achieved?

In collaboration with the care services we have set up a Bluetooth barcode reader connected to the nursing cart for the scanning of the therapeutics and the patient. The process allows after scanning and verification of the patient’s identity, to scan all the drugs to be administered orally or by injection directly at the time of administration and their validation in the patient’s file at once.

What next?

The approach around this work and its deployment has allowed team work between the pharmacy, the care services and the IT services in charge of the EHR to achieve the rapid and sustainable implementation of this solution, fast learning and saving nursing time. It allows us to secure our circuit from the production of therapeutics by our robot to the administration to the patient and also to respect the 5B rule of the drug circuit.

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