New POC Technology Helps Healthcare Providers Drive Patient Safety Improvements

New administration systems utilize point-of-care (POC) barcode technology to automatically validate and document the medication administration process to help reduce the potential for errors and improve care.

The Med Administration Check (MAK), developed by Siemens Healthcare (Erlangen, Germany), helps to reduce errors by providing a tool that alerts nurses immediately to potential errors of drug, dose, route, time, or patient.

CentraState Healthcare System, a 272-bed, non-profit medical facility located in Freehold, NJ, USA, began a system-wide initiative in 2007 to help address the costs and risks associated with preventable medication errors. A large component of the initiative included the implementation of MAK, along with Siemens Pharmacy. Now, when CentraState pharmacists fill a medication order, the system cross-checks the order with the patient's medical record for any potential contraindications, and nurses use barcode scanners to scan the medication and patient at the bedside when administering medications, during which the MAK system will provide alerts to the nurse if any potential risks or errors are detected.

The Siemens Patient Identification Check applies barcode technology to the patient specimen collection-process for effective, efficient positive identification of each specimen. As a result, it minimizes collection errors and can reduce the need to redraw specimens. Patient specimen identification is verified in four steps, performed in the presence of the patient: scanning the barcode on the clinician's identification (ID) card, scanning the barcode on the patient's wristband, reviewing specimen detail such as the type of container, and scanning the specimen container. Siemens Patient Identification Check then prints a barcode label that includes the actual time of collection and the name of the clinician who took the sample.

In addition to the positive impacts on patient safety that Patient Identification Check has helped to drive, the solution has also assisted considerable workflow improvements, specimen collection, and delivery turnaround times. Before using the system, phlebotomists would need to secure pre-printed labels from the lab for all of their specimen collections. With the new system, phlebotomists can act on an order immediately when notified via their Patient Identification Check handheld computer client, taking a patient sample and then immediately sending it to the lab. The result has been a 70% improvement, from an average of 21 minutes to 6.5 minutes, from collection to delivery to the lab of patient samples.

Soarian Device Connect enables electronic collection of information from GE Healthcare's (Chalfont St. Giles, UK) Dinamap vital signs monitors, streamlining the task of identifying patients, recording observations, and supporting validation of the documented vital signs. It helps to chances for transcription errors by replacing manual data transcription. The system makes vitals information immediately available to the clinicians. It also helps to validate and transfer vital signs electronically, with only a few clicks, helping to eliminate paper-based capture and online keying, thereby increasing nursing productivity.


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