How Barcoding Helps To Increase Pharmacy Efficiency & Safety

Retail pharmacies and hospital pharmacies rely on healthcare barcode scanning systems to correctly verify patient information, update patient records and ensure patients receive the correct amount of medication.

 Medical errors claim thousands of lives in the U.S. each year. Implementing a pharmacy barcode system reduces the chances of human error, saving time and money for pharmacies and keeping patients safe from dangerous medication errors. 

In fact, the FDA requires medication and drug manufacturers to place a barcode that indicates the item’s National Drug Code (NDC) on the drug’s container or packaging.

Hospitals and pharmacies also use advanced data collection devices that have dual barcode scanner and optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities in order to capture data from important documents like prescription cards or insurance cards. Healthcare scanners are often built with a disinfectant-ready housing, to protect the device’s mechanical and outer components from the wear and harmful effects of most cleaning solutions.

Pharmacy barcode scanners and data collection devices help to:

• ·         Ensure accurate filling of medication packages and bottles
• ·         Associate medical bottles to a patient’s medical file
• ·         Track and manage off-site medication storage

Implementation of pharmacy barcode scanning systems is the greatest challenge to using a barcode scanning system for patient care. Staff is often not well trained on using the hardware and software, leading to frustration and sometimes unwillingness to adopt the new technology.

Choosing a Healthcare Barcode Scanner

To find the best healthcare for pharmacy barcode scanner, try to choose a company that specializes in this vertical. Additionally, it is essential that you look at reviews of any wireless products regarding battery life, as battery life draining during critical medications administration could put patients in danger. Make sure to assess the ruggedness of the barcode scanner in relationship to the applications for which they will be used.

 Other Medical Uses for Scanners

Direct Part Mark (DPM) scanners are used to track and verify essential medical equipment for surgeries. DPM scanners read barcodes that are recessed into the surface of the object to be scanned.

Barcode scanners are also used to keep track of hospital admissions, specimen collection in laboratories, materials management and point-of-care administration and management.