Introduction
Barcoding system used hospitals is a software which was designed to improve the medication administration accuracy. It also help in collecting and generating patients records. This system was designed to help reduce the medication error. Error was defined as any event that can be prevented but can lead to wrong medication use or even patient harm. These errors can occur in medication process at any stage admissions, in specimen labeling, when prescribing drugs to the patient, despite this system helping in reducing these errors it has experienced various challenges and downsides.
Downsides of barcoding on admissions: The use of barcoded wristbands, in combination with a mobile printer in hospital admission process may not be much efficient especially in cases where these machines malfunctions. This will ultimately lead to loss of information.
Downside of barcoding in point care: Putting barcode on the bedside requires use of fixed devices required for collection of data to aid in scanning the barcodes. Fixing these devices will require a lot of money thereby affecting the institutions financially.
Downsides of barcoding on Hospital’s pharmacy: Hospital’s pharmacy has also experienced some barcoding challenges. This is because not all drugs in the pharmacy contain manufacturer’s barcodes. The manufacturer codes may not be standardized to hospital pharmacy formulary databases.
Downsides of barcoding on specimen collection: This leads to big errors since the patients receive wrong treatment. Some barcode get wet by the fluids during specimen collection and cannot be read by the barcode scanners.
Downsides of barcoding on hospital’s material management: Barcode software is expensive and costly to install and run. The system requires continuous maintenance in order to work well. The staffs also have to be trained well in order to efficiently run the system.
