Time trend of injection drug errors before and after implementation of bar-code verification system.

BACKGROUND

Bar-code technology, used for verification of patients and their medication, could prevent medication errors in clinical practice.

OBJECTIVE

Retrospective analysis of electronically stored medical error reports was conducted in a university hospital.

METHODS

The number of reported medication errors of injected drugs, including wrong drug administration and administration to the wrong patient, was compared before and after implementation of the bar-code verification system for inpatient care.

RESULTS

A total of 2867 error reports associated with injection drugs were extracted. Wrong patient errors decreased significantly after implementation of the bar-code verification system (17.4/year vs. 4.5/year, p< 0.05), although wrong drug errors did not decrease sufficiently (24.2/year vs. 20.3/year). The source of medication errors due to wrong drugs was drug preparation in hospital wards.

CONCLUSION

Bar-code medication administration is effective for prevention of wrong patient errors. However, ordinary bar-code verification systems are limited in their ability to prevent incorrect drug preparation in hospital wards.