Barcode medication administration (BCMA) technology is a useful tool to reduce medication administration errors (MAE) in the operating room. This study used a pre-post design to estimate the rate of MAE before and after BCMA implementation on infusion pumps. MAE were significantly reduced and up to 90% of errors were considered preventable, if the staff had utilized BCMA. Reasons for not using BCMA included unreadable barcodes, lack of time, and resistance to new processes.

Technology, such as barcode scanning, is a recognized method for improving medication safety, but poor design may lead to alert fatigue. This article describes a quality improvement project to reduce barcode-assisted medication preparation alerts in the hospital's pharmacies. More than 40% of alerts were identified as "barcode not recognized," such as packages containing more than one barcode. Problems associated with the highest volume of alerts were resolved with staff education, workflow changes, and changes.

Perioperative medication errors are common. This article highlights several interventions to reduce the risk of perioperative medication errors, including improved medication labeling, adoption of artificial intelligence for decision support and risk prediction, and the use of health information technology (IT), such as computerized physician order entry (CPOE), electronic medication administration records (eMAR), and barcode medication administration (BCMA).

Medication administration errors are major threats to patient safety. This qualitative study with 32 nurses from two US health system explored medication administration hazards and inefficiencies. Participants identified ten persistent safety hazards and inefficiencies, including issues with communication between safety monitoring systems and nurses, alert fatigue, and an overreliance on medication administration technology. These findings highlight the importance of developing medication administration technology in collaboration with frontline nurses who are tasked with medication administration.

Provision of enteral nutrition (EN) is a specialized process requiring careful interdisciplinary teamwork. After discovering significant issues with ordering, administration, and documentation of EN, this health system updated its workflows to improve safety. EN therapies were added to the electronic medication administration record (MAR) and the barcoding system was updated. After one year, all EN orders were barcode scanned and nearly all were documented as given or included a reason why they were not given.

Many types of interventions, such as education, technology, and simulations, have been used to reduce medication errors in the intensive care setting. This review identified 11 studies representing six intervention types; three of the six types showed improvement (prefilled syringe, nurses’ education program, and the protocolized program logic form) while the other three demonstrated mixed results.

While barcode-assisted medication administration (BCMA) and electronic medication administration records (eMAR) technologies have reduced adverse drug events, workarounds that may contribute to medication errors have been identified for both. This study of medication administration errors was conducted in a Canadian long-term care facility following implementation of eMAR-BCMA software. During the twenty-nine-month study period, 190 medication administration errors were reported.

Wrong blood in tube (WBIT) errors are rare but can lead to complications. One hospital implemented a quality improvement project to reduce WBIT errors with electronic patient identification, manual independent dual verification, and staff education. WBIT errors were significantly reduced and sustained over six years.

Use of bar code medication administration (BCMA) technology in hospitals has been shown to decrease medication errors at the time of administration. In 2016, the Leapfrog Group implemented a standard for BCMA use as part of its hospital survey. This article describes the development, testing, and subsequent refinement of the BCMA standard.

Barcode medication administration (BCMA) has been promoted as an effective method for reducing medication administration errors. In the emergency department of one Veterans Affairs Medical Center, medication error rates decreased by nearly 11% following introduction of BCMA technology. However, unsafe workarounds were also identified, which may limit the overall safety of BCMA.

Intravenous admixture preparation errors (IAPE) in hospitals are common and may result in harm if they reach the patient. In this before-and-after study, IAPE data were collected to evaluate the safety of a pharmacy-based centralized intravenous admixture service (CIVAS). Compared to the initial standard practice (nurse preparation on the ward), IAPE of all severity levels (i.e., potential error, no harm, harm) decreased and there were no errors in the highest severity level after implementation of CIVAS.

Barcode medication administration (BCMA) is one approach to reducing near-miss medication safety events. Researchers used a FOCUS (find-organize-clarify-understand-select) PDSA (plan-do-study-act) methodology to help frontline nursing staff identify gaps in care processes and root causes contributing to poor compliance with barcode medication administration.

Barcode medication administration (BCMA) processes are designed to prevent some types of medication administration errors. This article discusses how BCMA workflows support error prevention and how to identify workarounds that negate these error prevention mechanisms.