Evidence on the Impact of a Selected Patient Care Technology on Patient Safety, Quality of Care, And the Interdisciplinary Team.

Evidence on the Impact of a Selected Patient Care Technology on Patient Safety, Quality of Care, And the Interdisciplinary Team.

New digital innovations are revolutionizing the healthcare sector. According to Hanson

and Haddad (2021), nurses spend 70% of their time in direct patient care compared to doctors.

They have a unique role and responsibility as they are usually the last staff in a healthcare setting

to administer medication to patients. Medical errors like medication errors are the leading

hindrance to achieving patient safety and are an index for achieving patient safety. Medication

error is a preventable event that may cause harm to a patient while the medication is still under

the control of a healthcare provider (Owens et al., 2020). According to a report by the Institute of

Medicine, medication errors contribute to up to 98,000 deaths annually, prolonged

hospitalization, high hospitalization bills, and damage to the hospital and staff’s reputation

(Owens et al., 2020).

Many hospitals have adopted technologies like barcode medication administration

(BCMA) to overcome the medication error menace in the healthcare system. According to

Owens et al. (2020), BCMA is an inventory control system consisting of a barcode printer and

reader, mobile computer, computer server, and software that reduce medication errors by

validating and documenting medication electronically. Interdisciplinary collaboration is a crucial

determinant of the success of BCMA in reducing medication errors (ME). According to Macias

et al. (2018), BCMA promotes interdisciplinary collaboration between the IT and the clinical

team through training and solving technical issues for the medical team to ensure easy use of

technology, thus ensuring patient safety. Additionally, this collaboration ensures the correct

capturing and transmission of patient data from the first visit since that is the data that healthcare

providers use to prescribe and administer medication to patients, thus avoiding medication with

3

allergic reactions (Macias et al., 2018). This assessment will also summarize four peer-reviewed

articles to measure the impact of a barcode medication administration (BCMA) system on patient

safety, quality of care, and the interdisciplinary team. In addition, I will gather evidence from

Pubmed, Science Direct, Google scholar, and the BSN Program Library Research Guide

database. Search words include barcode medication administration and medication errors (ME).

Annotated Elements

Owens, K., Palmore, M., Penoyer, D., & Viers, P. (2020). Implementing barcode medication

administration in an emergency department affects medication administration errors and

nursing satisfaction. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 46(6), 884––891.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2020.07.004

This article assesses the effect of implementing barcode medication administration in an

emergency department to reduce medication errors and give nursing satisfaction. According to

the authors of this article, 98,000 patients die annually from medication errors. They further

reveal that as much as medication errors can occur from ordering or preparation steps, a third of

these errors occur during medication administration. Medication administration in the emergency

department (ED) is different from those in inpatient wards because, as opposed to inpatient

wards, EDs receive patients with unknown medical records like allergies, weight, or height

(Owens et al., 2020). According to this article, other emergency department challenges include

increased workload, verbal instructions leading to confusion, medication administration before a

physician finishes examining a patient, and pharmacists having a hard time reconciling

medication, thus increasing risks of human errors. However, according to Owens et al. (2020),

BCMA systems improve accuracy and patient safety in medication administration by scanning