Bar-code technology that includes an electronic medication administration record (eMAR) significantly reduces potential drug-related adverse events and transcription and medication administration errors, according to a study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In the study, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston compared 6,723 medication administrations on hospital units before bar-code eMAR was introduced with 7,318 administrations following introduction of the technology and found that there were significant reductions in errors related to timing and dosage of medications.
Specifically, the researchers found a 41-percent reduction in non-timing administration errors and a 51-percent reduction in potential drug-related adverse events associated with this kind of error. Errors in the timing of medication administration dropped 27 percent.
Read the AHRQ news release on medication safety and bar-code technology.