Bar code system reduces IS errors
Manual entry eliminated
Use of an automated point-of-care wristband bar code system for patient identification at Houston Healthcare in Warner Robins, GA, has reduced information systems errors by 30% in its first three months of implementation, says Beth Benefield, executive director of information technology and information.
The health system includes 186-bed Houston Medical Center, 45-bed Perry Hospital, and several outpatient facilities.
"We needed to implement an automated, streamlined process that would eliminate the human error in handwriting armbands and manually keying in the patient identifiers on the glucose meter," she adds. "With this new system, nursing and lab personnel no longer have to manually key in the patient's account number. This allows them more time for patient care."
Upon entering emergency department triage, Benefield explains, each patient is banded with a PDC (Precision Dynamics Corp.) Bar Code ScanBand that contains the patient's name and account number, "needed for multiple reasons down the road."
"When the patient gets to the room and is determined to need a glucose test, the [caregiver] can hold the device in one hand and scan the wristband, so the patient account number is automatically identified on the meter," she says. "The results are immediately available at bedside. The device is taken to a docking station and the information is then downloaded into a Meditech laboratory information system.
"We've always armbanded ED patients, but before [staff] just took bands out of a bag and handwrote the patient name and account number," she says. "There was a legibility issue, and if they were going to perform a test, they had to manually key the account number into the glucose meter."
Benefield estimates at least two minutes are saved per patient, per nurse using the new bar code system. With an average of 200 patients triaged in the ED per day, more than six-and-a-half hours are saved in identifying patients for glucose testing, she says.
"I believe we've received a very positive return on investment for a relatively minimal investment of less than $10,000," Benefield notes.
With inpatients, the new system replaces the old method of using an embosser card for patient identification, she says.
The bar code wristband system will be used to eliminate other manual procedures, including those involving bedside medication "and for any type of electronic process where we need to identify the patient," Benefield points out. "It leads into savings down the road, and will be a huge benefit in ensuring patient safety. There is so much less opportunity for manual error."
(Editor's note: Beth Benefield can be reached at [email protected].)
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