title: Improving medication administration safety in solid organ transplant patients through barcode-assisted medication administration.
abstract: Solid organ transplant recipients are prescribed a high number of medications, increasing the potential for medication errors. Barcode-assisted medication administration (BCMA) is technology that reduces medication administration errors. An observational study was conducted at an academic medical center solid organ transplant unit before and after BMCA implementation. Medication accuracy was determined and administration errors were categorized by type and therapeutic class of medication. A baseline medication administration error rate of 4.8% was observed with wrong dose errors representing 78% of the errors. During the post-BCMA period the medication administration error rate was reduced by 68% to 1.5% (P = .0001). Wrong dose errors were reduced by 67% (P = .001), and unauthorized medication administrations were reduced by 73%. Steroids were associated with the highest error rate. The results of this study suggest that routinely adopting BCMA has the potential to reduce medication administration errors in transplant patients.
authors.affiliation: 1The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH.
authors.forename: Josesph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bonkowski
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Melucci
authors.forename: Todd
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pesavento
authors.forename: Mitchell
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moffatt-Bruce
mesh_terms: D065187:Controlled Before-After Studies; D001330:Electronic Data Processing / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods; D061214:Patient Safety; D058996:Quality Improvement
keywords: barcode scanning; medication safety; quality improvement