Effect of Barcode‐assisted Medication Administration on Emergency Department Medication Errors

• Published in: Academic emergency medicine 2013-08, Vol.20 (8), p.801-806
• Main Authors: Bonkowski, Joseph, Carnes, Cynthia, Melucci, Joseph, Mirtallo, Jay, Prier, Beth, Reichert, Erin, Moffatt‐Bruce, Susan, Weber, Robert, Mello, Michael J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Automatic Data Processing - methods; Drug dosages; Emergency medical care; Emergency Service, Hospital - organization & administration; Histamine; Humans; Medical errors; Medication Errors - prevention & control; Medication Errors - statistics & numerical data; Medication Systems, Hospital; Ohio; Physicians
• ISSN: 1069-6563; 1553-2712
• DOI: 10.1111/acem.12189

Objectives Barcode‐assisted medication administration (BCMA) is technology with demonstrated benefit in reducing medication administration errors in hospitalized patients; however, it is not routinely used in emergency departments (EDs). EDs may benefit from BCMA, because ED medication administration is complex and error‐prone. Methods A naïve observational study was conducted at an academic medical center implementing BCMA in the ED. The rate of medication administration errors was measured before and after implementing an integrated electronic medical record (EMR) with BCMA capacity. Errors were classified as wrong drug, wrong dose, wrong route of administration, or a medication administration with no physician order. The error type, severity of error, and medications associated with errors were also quantified. Results A total of 1,978 medication administrations were observed (996 pre‐BCMA and 982 post‐BCMA). The baseline medication administration error rate was 6.3%, with wrong dose errors representing 66.7% of observed errors. BCMA was associated with a reduction in the medication administration error rate to 1.2%, a relative rate reduction of 80.7% (p