PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 361 - 4 May 2002

■ A barcode medication administration (BCMA)system can substantially reduce the incidence ofmedication errors, says an editorial in the AmericanJournal of Health-System Pharmacy. The BCMA systemwas implemented at the Veterans Affairs (VA) MedicalCenter in Topeka, US. The system scans eachmedication prior to administration and a visual alertidentifies the wrong barcoded patient identificationwristband, administration time, drug dosage or noactive medication order, and documents the avoidederror. Since implementation of the BCMA system, thenumber of wrong medications dispensed at the VAcentre has been reduced by 75%. In addition, patientmix-ups have decreased by 93%, dosage errors by62%, missed doses by 70% and wrong administrationtimes by more than 87%.Young D. Veterans affairs bar-code-scanning system reduces medicationerrors. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy 59: 591-592, 1 Apr2002 800907003

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 4 May 2002 No. 3611173-5503/10/0361-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved