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IV lines are prevalent in health care settings, especially in hospitals, nursing homes, and home health care. They are usually used to bring medicine or fluids directly into a patient’s body.
Bar code medication administration was designed as an additional check to aid the nurse in administering medications; however, it cannot replace the expertise and professional judgment of the nurse. The implementation of BCMA has shown a decrease in medication administration errors in the healthcare setting. [6]
A 2006 study found that medication errors are among the most common medical mistakes, harming at least 1.5 million people every year. According to the study, 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries occur each year in hospitals, 800,000 in long-term care settings, and roughly 530,000 among Medicare recipients in outpatient clinics.
State regulators faulted two hospitals in Southern California for medication errors that put patients at risk, including one who suffered a brain bleed after receiving repeated doses of blood thinner.
[127] Errors by hospital staff nurses are more likely when work shifts extend beyond 12 hours, or they work over 40 hours in one week. Studies have shown that overtime shifts have harmful effects on the quality of care provided to patients, but some researchers "who evaluated the safety of 12-hour shifts did not find increases in medication ...
Healthcare professionals use specimen testing (blood, urine, or other) to help diagnose disease, assess health, and monitor medication level. Accurate results can be yielded from error-free collection procedures. Specimens that are collected incorrectly may lead to erroneous test results, which may lead to serious consequences for patients.
The MEDMARX report released in 2007 analyzed 11,000 medication errors during surgery in 500 hospitals between 1998 and 2005. The analysis showed that medication errors that happen in the operating room or recovery areas are three times more likely to harm a patient than errors occurring in other types of hospital care.
Despite ample evidence of the potential to reduce medication errors, adoption of this technology by doctors and hospitals in the United States has been slowed by resistance to changes in physician's practice patterns, costs and training time involved, and concern with interoperability and compliance with future national standards. [13]