4 Ways Barcode Technology is Saving Lives
In healthcare, patient care and safety is paramount. As a key decision-maker, managing countless assets and tracking a growing patient base can be daunting. How can you simplify inventory complexities and patient validation?
Healthcare digital transformation, especially barcode technology, has significantly boosted patient safety. Barcodes streamline patient care & medication tracking — from admission to medication administration. Barcodes, like wristband tags, aid in accurate patient care, minimizing errors and enhancing efficiency.
Here’re four ways barcode technologies streamline everyday patient care processes and increase operational efficiencies.
Barcode Bracelets for Patients
Barcode bracelets are now standard in hospitals. These bracelets, when scanned, provide essential patient information, ensuring correct treatments and preventing potential mix-ups. They streamline patient care, eliminating the need for physical files and allowing instant access to medical histories. Any updates to your profile are instantly saved, ensuring consistent and informed care.
Accurate Medication Management
Barcode systems in medication management enhance patient safety. Did you know barcodes prevent over 90,000 medical errors in terms of accurate dosages & timings annually? By scanning medication bracelets, nurses determine doses based on the patient’s weight and height, pre-existing allergies etc. All the information related to drug administrations is just a scan away. Barcodes also indicate expiration dates for the hospitals to know when to replace the unused medication. Such systems have reduced human errors in drug administration by up to 27%.
Specimen Collection & Lab Tests
Accurate specimen collection and lab tests are crucial to prevent medical errors. Mislabeling can lead to about 160,000 errors each year, including grave misdiagnoses like cancer. Z bands by Zebra’s printers enhance lab labeling accuracy, ensuring resilience against external factors. Barcodes ensure clarity, preventing results mix-ups. Medical labels are designed to endure extreme conditions, ensuring consistent scannability.
For patients needing urgent blood transfusions, timing is critical. A wrong blood transfusion can be fatal. Administering the wrong blood type can be lethal, as the body reacts against it while already grappling with severe blood loss. The FDA has made barcodes mandatory on blood bags to ensure recipients get the right blood type quickly and safely. This underscores the vital role of barcode technology in ensuring healthcare safety.
Enhanced Tracking and Accountability in Healthcare
Barcodes facilitate organization in workspaces. Hospitals can anticipate supply arrivals, streamlining the unpacking process. Damaged items are easy to return. Hospitals can expect refunds quickly after tracking the package back to the distributor.
Even though it’s rare, one can not pretend that prescription pills or costly items don’t go missing from time to time. Barcoding helps in preventing such mishaps by making everyone accountable while handling drugs. The information recorded each time a medicine is accessed makes it hard to use drugs for anything other than treating patients.
Barcodes Revolutionizing Healthcare, One Scan at a Time
Barcodes are more than just lines on a tag; they’ve become crucial in streamlining healthcare operations, enhancing patient safety, and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. When integrated effectively, this simple technology can bring about profound transformations in healthcare management. If you’re looking to upgrade your healthcare system, Crave InfoTech, a prominent partner of SAP and Zebra Technologies, offers precise, dependable solutions to help your hospital or your facility identify, track, locate and monitor the condition of every patient, staff and asset you have.
