Group purchaser requires bar codes on medications
March 1, 2002
Group purchaser requires bar codes on medications
In an effort to reduce medical errors, Premier Inc. in Springfield, VA, which operates one of the nation’s largest group-purchasing organizations serving hospitals, will require group contracts that cover medications and biological products to have consistent product numbers and unit-of-use bar codes.
By requiring scannable bar codes for hospital pharmaceutical products similar to those used on grocery items, "medication errors in hospitals will be reduced with more assurance that patients get the right medicine at the right time in the right dosage," says Howard E. Sanders, a Premier executive responsible for group purchasing.
The move also should reduce costs in the hospital supply process, he says. Premier will implement the new requirement for product numbering and bar coding as current group contracts for existing pharmaceutical products expire, Sanders says. A leading alliance owned by not-for-profit health systems, Premier provides group-purchasing services for approximately 1,600 hospitals. Premier members purchase more than $14 billion a year in supplies and equipment through Premier group contracts, including more than $6 billion a year in pharmacy products.
Premier has about 150 group contracts in place for pharmaceuticals, covering more than 12,000 items. The Department of Health and Human Services earlier announced that it expects to propose a rule next year requiring the bar-code labeling of hospital-administered medications and biological products.
"Premier’s decision to move in advance of any regulation was made out of a commitment to patient safety," Sanders says. "We know this technology can save lives, and we won’t wait to see if a regulation is approved to make sure it is available to our hospitals and the patients they care for."
Premier will make its support of unit-of-use bar coding clear to the companies that supply pharmaceuticals to its members, and it will urge those companies to become early adopters of this technology. Starting in 2003, when the bulk of current contracts expire for existing products, Premier will make implementation of unit-of-use bar coding a requirement of all new and renewed contracts, he says. Premier also expects to move toward requiring bar codes for medical devices and medical-surgical supplies in the future. No timetable has been set for group contracts in those areas, since their contracting periods vary.
"We understand that implementing unit-of-use bar coding will not be a simple task," Sanders says. "For companies that have not undertaken such approaches, implementation may necessitate process changes in both the clinical and manufacturing settings, perhaps even the retooling of internal and external information and manufacturing systems. Although some manufacturers and suppliers have concerns regarding such an investment, we believe the lives saved and ultimate supply-chain savings clearly outweigh any initial investment."
Premier will work closely with its business partners to facilitate the bar-code implementation, Sanders says, and it will also support streamlining of Food and Drug Administration approvals related to labeling changes.
In addition to improving safety and cutting costs, the use of bar coding would improve the ability of individual hospitals to track their data to improve the quality of patient care over time, according to Bert Patterson, vice president of the Premier Contracting Center of Excellence, and a clinical pharmacist. Many Premier member hospitals pool clinical, financial, and operational data in the alliance’s databases, and hospitals compare performance indicators to identify areas for improvement.
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