Technology that prevents medication errors
Does scanning barcodes on medicines and patient wristbands lead to safer medicine handling? Absolutely, says Alma Mulac, but the system is challenging on many levels.
A well-known global initiative in hospitals is to use technology as a safety barrier against medication errors. Many hospitals are introducing Closed Medication Loops (CML) to improve medication safety and avoid patient harm. Barcode-assisted medication administration (SALA) is part of this and involves both the patient's wristband and medicines at unit level being labelled with barcodes and scanned when the medicine is given to the patient. Alma Mulac is a PhD student and has studied what happens in the last few metres of the medication management process, from the nurse filling the medication trolley to the patient in the hospital bed. The research is a collaboration with master's student Synne Margrethe Nielsen, Østfold Hospital, Kalnes Hospital Pharmacy and Sykehusapotekene HF.
Presentation by research fellow Alma Mulac, Department of Pharmacy at the University of Oslo.
Recording
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