Effect of barcode technology on medication preparation safety: a quasi-experimental study.
Barcode medication administration (BCMA) systems are one strategy to reduce medication administration time and preparation errors. This study sought to assess the influence of BCMA on the rate of medication preparation errors and time spent by registered nurses on medication preparation tasks. Use of BCMA decreased wrong medication and wrong dosage errors, and wrong patient, wrong form, and ambiguous dispenser errors did not occur post-intervention. Additionally, BCMA decreased medication preparation time.