The main patient safety goal of many hospitals has always been to “improve the accuracy of patient identification,” mostly with bar coding solutions.
But before deciding which specific solution you should purchase—make sure your hospital’s bar coding vision is clear! Otherwise you might end up purchasing products that are not user-friendly, are not integrated well enough, or are just work-arounds and are never used.
Bar coding in the hospital
Although it might cause a lot of trouble and effort to define your Bar coding at the Point of Care (BPOC) vision—it is worth having a clear goal for all stakeholders.
I found an interesting article that recommends doing some investigation as a basis for your vision:
1) Depth perception:
- Where are the Points of patient ID in our hospital?
- Where is the highest risk / Where are the most problems?
- What do we have today? / What do we lack?
2) Breadth perception
- What’s out there / What is working well?
- How can we benefit from synergies?
- Integrated vs. stand alone BPOC?
Further, the author explains that bringing the depth and breadth perception together is not just an x/y diagram—it requires 3-D thinking and means a complex integration of all factors and impacts like:
- Budget
- Networks
- Vendor readiness etc.
- Existing Paperwork
- Procedures
- Devices
- Timeframes etc.
Read the whole article:
I’ve been thinking about hospital game plans for improving the accuracy of patient identification
Learn more about bar coding at the point of care with these White Papers:
Benefit from bedside specimen labeling
Adopting bar code labeling in hospital pharmacies
Patient Safety Applications of Bar Code and RFID Technologies
