Mount Auburn Healthcare Connection

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We’re all familiar with barcodes on store products. Those black and white vertical lines identify items and their prices, making your checkout experience quicker and more accurate.

Now, this same concept is being used in hospitals to assure safe medication administration. Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, started using barcode technology in a pilot program in May 2009.

Benefits of barcodes in hospitals
“The ultimate benefit is patient safety,” says Laura Willis R.N., Nurse at Mount Auburn Hospital.

Patients participating in the program wear a special bracelet with a barcode on it. By scanning the barcode with a hand-held device, nurses gain quick access to patients’ medication profiles and any allergies to medication. “The barcode feature brings greater reliability to a complicated system,” Willis says.

The barcode system is especially helpful in preventing medication errors. Nurses use the barcodes to confirm that the patient and medication orders match, and that medication is being given at the scheduled time. If the medication does not match the patient’s electronic profile, the scanner notifies the nurse, preventing potentially devastating errors.

More checks and balances
Medications are dispensed from a unique dispensary machine. To gain access to the medications, the nurses identify themselves by their fingerprints. The patient’s barcode is scanned to determine the correct medication and dose. The machine also tracks when medications are delivered.

The computerized Physician Order Entry System electronically integrates doctors’ orders into the process. “This greatly reduces errors and improves timeliness of orders,” Willis says.

Since the pilot program began, there have been noted improvements in medication administration at Mount Auburn Hospital. “Our CEO and medication reliability team support this technology because of the clear safety benefits for patients," says Willis. "It’s like getting into your car and putting on your seatbelt. It’s the right thing to do. It also makes our patients feel very safe.”

Nearly a year into the program, the technology has proved to have positive results. Willis believes the barcoding system will be one of the next steps to further improve health care around the country. “With patient safety a top priority at Mount Auburn Hospital, medication safety experts and frontline staff continuously evaluate programs and improve systems to maintain the highest level of quality and safety,” she says.

At Mount Auburn Hospital, there are many nurses with specific areas of expertise. These nurses work collaboratively with a team of care providers to administer the highest quality of care to patients.

For a free Mount Auburn Hospital physician directory, please call us at (617) 499-5094.