NDNQI Action Plan

The healthcare problem I would like to address, as the topic of this paper will be mislabeling of laboratory specimens in the emergency room, and can barcode-scanning aid in reducing this risk.

Improved patient safety is the most essential advantage of the BCMA system. “On average a hospital patient is subjected to at least one medication error per day (IOM, 2006)”(Foote). BCMA significantly reduces medication errors that cause a compromise in patient safety. The BCMA verifies the five rights of medication administration before a patient receives a medication by the software alerting the nurse if there is a contraindication between the medicine scanned and the patient’s orders. A pilot study conducted at a 300-bed community hospital found that the BCMA system reduced medication errors by 80% (Foote). Fowler et al states that “decrease in errors related to the wrong patient was a direct result of the bar code system (Fowler).”

“a paperless, digital and computerized system of maintaining patient data, designed to increase the efficiency and reduce documentation errors by streamlining the process.”(Santiago, n.d., para. 1)

Available prior to the start of the procedure Correctly identified, labeled, and matched to the patient’s identifiers Reviewed and are consistent with the patient’s expectations and with the team’s understanding of the intended patient, procedure, and site (UP.01.01.01 p. 13)”

Use at least two patient identifiers when providing care. Double checking of ID bands and ID/Driver’s license of patient if possible. Using labels to mark all materials /items needed for the procedures. A two person check off procedure must be implemented. Items requiring labeling include: patient records, signed consents, and all assessments, diagnostic tests and x-rays. Also included should be any item that is needed for the procedure (blood products, devices, and equipment). Using a matching system, so that all items in the procedure area are matched to the patient. The matching system must be completed by a minimum of two staff members. These staff members should include a qualified staff member, nursing staff involved in the procedure, recovery room staff, and discharge staff.

An accurate and specific documentation of universally accepted set of codes are important for the protection of healthcare providers as well as increased reimbursement for services received. These codes are for the validation of which services the patient received from their health care provider ( (Page, 2009). Having the correct codes in place insures the provider with the information needed by the health insurance carrier. Maintained by the AMA (American Medical Association), this universal numeric assignment is also used for developing guidelines for medical care review as well as data collection for medical education and research (Scott, 2013).

The following articles were reviewed for the purpose of addressing bar code scanning in medication administration. Nursing requires the critical skill of accurate medication administration. The use of electronic medication administration has brought about many changes in the healthcare field. The article,” What Determines Successful Implementation of Inpatient Information Technology Systems” (Spetz et al 2012), was reviewed to address the above question. Computerized patients records and bar-code medication systems continue to gain favor in healthcare. This idea spread across the nation in all VA sites (Spetz et al., 2012, p. 157), providing a safer environment for patient care.

According to pharmacist T. Perryman, the errors he sees the most in the pharmacy setting “occurs when hospital made barcodes are being added to the medication rather than the medication having factory barcodes already present.” The process of standardizing all pharmaceutical drug

The Information Technology Manager is to develop a Standard Operating Procedure for all Care Units to require the use of computerized demographic labels printed on-demand from Hospital LIS at the time of initiating patient orders. The labels’ quantity must be sufficient for each patient’s order to be placed on appropriate forms, as well as on all sample containers and tubes at the time of collection. Internal Audits are to be conducted on a quarterly basis in order to determine the effectiveness of this change.

The Information Technology Manager is to develop a Standard Operating Procedure for all Care Units to require the use of computerized demographic labels printed on-demand from Hospital LIS at the time of initiating patient orders. The labels’ quantity must be sufficient for each patient’s order to be placed on appropriate forms, as well as on all sample containers and tubes at the time of collection. Internal Audits are to be conducted on a quarterly basis in order to determine the effectiveness of this change.

While the use of barcode technology has had many applications in hospitals for quite some time it has only recently been used to address patient safety. Mitch Work (2005) views bar code technology as a particularly promising advance in the effort to reduce medical errors. Barcodes provide a valuable verification of medication administration by assuring that the "five rights" are confirmed: right patient, right medication, right dose, right time, and right route of administration. The use of barcode technology at the patient's bedside has shown notable gains in reducing medication administration errors, which may account for as many as 7,000 deaths per year in U.S. hospitals.

Proper patient identification in hospitals has been an issue for many years, especially when it comes to blood specimen collection. Laboratory specimens being mislabeled are a everyday cause of harm to patients including repeat diagnostic procedures; repeat phlebotomy; delays in necessary surgical procedures; a performing unnecessary surgical procedures (Dunn and Moga, 2010). This is not only costly, but it is very stressing to patients and medical staff. The biggest concern is the possibility of making a fatal error when it comes to specimen collection. Without proper patient identification this risk increases substantially. Wallin, Sodberg, Van Guelpen, Stenlund, Grankvist, and Brulin (2009) state that critical errors in patient identification for blood testing occurs in up to one per 1000 specimens or procedures and misidentified specimens cause 160,000 adverse events every year in America.

In 2003, The Joint Commission made one of their first goals to improve the accuracy of identifying patients to reduce or eliminate patient identification errors. This continues to be an accreditation requirement. Their recommendations to do this are to use at least two patient identifiers when administering medications, and when providing treatments or procedures. Acceptable identifiers may be the individual’s name, an assigned identification number, telephone number, or other person-specific identifier. Patient room number or physical location may not be used as an appropriate identifier. Healthcare provides should re-identify the patient with each encounter, each medication pass, and each procedure. There have been procedures and protocols throughout the country have been put into place to make the care provided to patients safer. Another element of this requirement is that all containers should be labeled in the patients presences after using the patient identifiers

Nursing in today?s society involves more than technical skills, critical thinking, and compassion. It also is changing to add the ability to not only understand but be able to utilize technology to impact a patient?s health. There are many technological changes employed in healthcare practices, however, I have chosen to address bar-code medication administration or BCMA. According to an article in the Journal of Patient Safety, ?bar-code medication administration has been shown to be effective in reducing patient medical errors, yet is still only utilized in 5% of the country?s health care facilities? (Sands, Slebodnik, & Young, 2010). Medication errors are common in hospitals and often lead not only to patient harm, but also lengthy hospital stays and law suits. ?One study identified 6.5 adverse events related to medication use per 100 inpatient admissions, more than one fourth of these events were due to errors and were therefore preventable? (Bane, et. al., 2010).

Ineffective breathing pattern related to decreased oxygen saturation, poor tissue perfusion, obesity, decreased air entry to bases of both lungs, gout and arthritic pain, decreased cardiac output, disease process of COPD, and stress as evidenced by shortness of breath, BMI > 30 abnormal breathing patterns (rapid, shallow breathing), abnormal skin colour (slightly purplish), excessive diaphoresis, nasal flaring and use of accessory muscles, statement of joint pain, oxygen saturations of 85-95% 2L NP, immobility 95% of the day, and adventitious sounds throughout lungs (crackles) secondary to CHF, hypertension, pain caused by gout and arthritis, and obesity