Quick hit - Barcode scanner consistency
Part of the process of implementing barcode medication administration (BCMA) is evaluating hardware; mostly scanners. There are several makers of barcode scanners including Honeywell, Symbol, Metrologic, Datalogic and Code Corp. Having so many choices always makes the selection process interesting.
One suggestion from several hospitals I spoke with that were already live with BCMA, was to use the same barcode scanner on the nursing floors that were used in the pharmacy. That sounds logical, right? Sure, if the barcode scans correctly in the pharmacy, then nursing should be able to scan the same barcode using the same scanner.
The scanner of choice in our pharmacy department is the the Code Reader 3500 from Code Corp. So of course this is the scanner I recommended in my report to the BCMA hardware sub-committee. For whatever reason, the committee decided to go with a different brand of scanner. Unfortunately the scanners we purchased won’t scan some of the more complex barcodes coming out of pharmacy, making them virtually useless. The scanners purchased by the hospital are on their way back to the wholesaler as I patiently await for round two.
Take away lesson: use the same barcode scanner for the nursing units that the pharmacy department uses to meet their barcoding needs.
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Hardware selection... and configuration...
Since Koppel's work describing the perils of badly planned and executed BCMA, I find myself frequently amazed at some of the decision-making that goes into BCMA systems implementations.
While bar code scanners generally now come out of the box ready to auto-discriminate a large number of symbologies, some still have to be configured, and others are simply not supported (only a few laser scanners, for example, can read a 2-D).
While your approach certainly does the best to minimize these kinds of issues, it should be practical for a thoughtful organization to describe in some detail the kinds of bar codes (both in terms of symbology and content) that equipment must read and hold the vendor's feet to the fire to be able to scan those codes.
Agreed
I couldn't agree more. I wasn't involved in the process so cannot speculate on what went wrong. All scanner manufacturers, I think, offer scanners that can handle most of the barcode symbology out there. I've had good luck with both Code and Honeywell. My point was to simply provide a standard approach across the hardware selection to make maintenance, programming and use easier for everyone involved.
Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate the feedback.