Barcode medication. Administration implementation in an acute care hospital and lessons learned.

Bar code medication administration (BCMA) systems ensure the five "rights" during medication administration: right patient, drug, dose, route and time. Implementing BCMA is a vital component of a medication safety strategy. Implementing BCMA is a complex project that involves many disciplines, each with unique workflow implications. For example, nursing has interface configuration and hardware reliability concerns, whereas pharmacy considers efficiency maximization and inventory management of unit-dosed bar coded medications as the main priorities. Suboptimal planning or ineffective project methodology may lead to poor adoption or to nurses implementing BCMA workarounds that can negate potential benefits or lead to new errors. This paper describes our experience in successfully implementing a BCMA system at a 630-bed acute tertiary care public hospital. We will describe the BCMA system and project methodology, discuss important considerations related to pharmacy, technology, admitting, nursing adoption and service area considerations, and share lessons learned.