title: Centralized breastmilk handling and bar code scanning improve safety and reduce breastmilk administration errors.
abstract: Safe handling and preparation of breastmilk within the hospital setting are often taken for granted, and the process may not be scrutinized until problems arise. Areas of concern focus on both risk of contamination of breastmilk feedings due to handling and fortification and risk of a breastmilk misadministration. In two phases, Children's Hospital of Orange County (Orange, CA) implemented centralized breastmilk handling and breastmilk bar code scanning. As a result of these process changes, reports of breastmilk administration errors decreased to zero. However, bar code scanning allowed for the tracking of near misses. During the first 6 months of breastmilk bar code scanning, 55 attempts to feed the wrong breastmilk to the wrong patient and 127 attempts to feed expired breastmilk were prevented. Our findings are consistent with current practice recommendations that support the use of centralized breastmilk handling and systems for proper identification of breastmilk.
authors.affiliation: 1 Clinical Nutrition & Lactation Services, Children's Hospital of Orange County , Orange, California.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Steele
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bixby
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D005260:Female; D005511:Food Handling / Q000592:standards*; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D017784:Milk Banks / Q000592:standards*; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000382:microbiology*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011247:Pregnancy; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D058996:Quality Improvement; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology