I worked in a place that had BCMA (bar code medication administration). Our medication errors almost went down to nothing. If we had a medication error, it was because someone manually entered something into the computer that was not supposed to be done anyway. I thought the system was great, other than when the system would go down. I found it very hard to go back to the old system of using the MAR and verifying the DR’s orders, taking verbal orders, etc. Each doctor would put his or her orders into the computer, which would then be sent to the pharmacy and the pharmacist would verify the order and then make the order active so that the nurse could give the medication. Each patient wore a bar coded wrist band that you would scan and bring up their profile on the computer system on the med cart. Each medication would have a bar code and have to be scanned. If you did not scan the right medication or scanned it at the wrong time, there was a box that would pop up and make you aware that this was not the right medication or the wrong time to be given, or the wrong dosage. We had a lot of foreign doctors where I worked so this system was great because you knew exactly what order was wrote and the doctor was the one responsible for putting them in the computer. It did take a long time to get all the docs trained on this system, as this was new for all of us. Also all of our nursing notes and docs progress notes were computerized. The BCMA made it almost error proof when it came to med errors.
tags
medication errors
forensic nursing chronicles
forensic nursing
Forensic Nursing Chronicles 