Massachusetts General Hospital Uses Smart Printers To Ensure Patient Safety

One of the most important safeguards to protect hospital patients from medication errors is the “Five Rights Check.” Before administering any medication, the nurse or other caregiver performs checks to make sure the 1) right patient is receiving the 2) right medication in the 3) right dose by the 4) right route (e.g. oral, intravenous) at the 5) right time. One in five medications administered in U.S. hospitals is given in error because it does not meet at least one of these criteria, according to one study. Mistakes can cause complications, and sometimes lives. Hospitals could eliminate 50 percent of their medication administration errors by scanning bar codes at the point of care to positively identify patients, the medication they are about to receive, and match the information to a physician order, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston is a pioneer in using the type of bar code-based medication administration systems cited by the FDA. Before Massachusetts General could incorporate bar code scanning into its Five Rights check procedures, it had to get bar codes onto its medicine. Very few of the pharmaceutical products received at the hospital were bar coded at the unit-of-use level. The hospital pharmacy had extensive experience with medication repackaging and relabeling, but had no experience with bar coding at the level needed for the patient safety initiatives. Massachusetts General had to build its unit-of-use labeling system from scratch.