Barcode Technology for Positive Patient Identification Prior to Transfusion

This article was published in the July/August issue of Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare

In today’s highly demanding clinical environment introducing a new technology is challenging under the best of circumstances. What if, right when roll-out is going well, an unrelated connectivity interruption leads nurses to conclude “this doesn’t work”? You will need to get the new initiative back on track—especially when it impacts improving patient safety. How do you meet your end-users’ needs, protect your hospital’s considerable investment, get the positive results leadership expects, and, most importantly, help improve patient safety and quality of care?

Saint Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia, (Saint Joseph’s) faced exactly this challenge, just days after go-live with a positive patient identification (PPID) software platform that had been carefully evaluated and selected to help improve blood transfusion safety. After the software platform and mobile barcode devices had been successfully installed throughout the hospital, modifications to the hospital’s wireless network caused significant connectivity issues for more than 10 weeks. Although not device-related, nurses perceived this problem as a product failure and were reluctant to change from their manual method of transfusion administration.

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Precision Dynamics Releases New Patient Identification Product

Precision Dynamics Corporation, recently released their new Write On Version of the Securline® Bar Code Blood Band, a blood recipient ID wristband system that provides automated patient identification for blood transfusion, specimen collection, and tracking. Using bar coding technology, the Securline® Bar Code Blood Band meets the revised Elements of Performance (EP) as outlined in The Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goal for blood transfusions, NPSG.01.03.01, for a one-person verification process (versus two-person verification). The revised EP was released in September 2010 after The Joint Commission consulted healthcare and safety experts and literature to determine that automated identification technology can and does contribute to patient safety.

The Securline®Bar Code Blood Band is pre-printed with alpha-numeric bar codes to accurately match the right patient to the right blood. This improves patient safety by reducing identification related human errors that can occur during the blood transfusion process. The Write On version features a patient identification information area with a draw tube label. Once removed, a carbonless copy remains on the patient wristband.

"As hospitals continue to focus on patient safety and reducing errors, bar coding technology will play a key role in replacing some of the human dependant verification processes with automated identification,"

Karen Joseph, Marketing Manager for Precision Dynamics. 

The Securline® Bar Code Blood Band features an easy-to-use snap style closure which saves hospital staff time. Its secure bar code labels with permanent adhesive also prevent hospitals from having to re-work blood specimen collections caused by misplaced labels. Mary Ann Sharpe, Blood Bank Manager at Research Medical Center which belongs to HCA Midwest Health System, stated, "Securline® Bar Code Blood Bands are easy to apply because the bands snap closed just like our admission wristbands. Plus, the bar code labels on the Securline® product are very secure and don't peel off accidentally like we experienced with the other band."

Sunquest Information Announces New Patient Safety Product

Sunquest Information Systems®, recently announced its Collection Manager solution (for blood and specimen collection) and the Transfusion Manager solution (for blood products). These solutions contribute to patient safety, positive patient identification, transparency, and accountability. Collection Manager, accessed from a handheld device, verifies the patient’s identification, test orders, and tube types being collected. It then prints the appropriate labels, in real-time, right at the bedside.This enhances care provider productivity and eliminates costs associated with preventable medical errors.


Sunquest Transfusion Manager enables trained healthcare professionals to verify both patient and blood product to ensure safe, intended outcomes. Operating on a portable, hand-held devices, Transfusion Manager assists laboratories and caregivers in positively identifying transfusion recipients, matching blood products to recipients, recording recipient pertinent transfusion information, and recording recipient transfusion reactions and caregiver comments.

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York Hospital Improves Patient Safety With Bedside Barcoding System from Talyst

York Hospital in York, Pennsylvania, recently announced they have adopted new technology by Talyst. The hospital will implement AutoPharm3, AutoCarousel HD, AutoPack and AutoLabel to increase its efficiency and improve patient safety. The hospital's central pharmacy on the North side of the hospital, needed a solution that would ensure accurate, timely deliveries to hospital patients on the South side of the hospital. With enterprise-class software with bedside barcode scanning, York Hospital will ensure virtually 100% of the medications leaving the pharmacy are scan-ready at the bedside to improve accuracy and reduce medication errors.

"Over the last 30 years, our hospital has seen increasing demands with our pharmacy services and population growth," said Thomas Brenner, Director of Pharmacy at York Hospital in York, Pa. "With Talyst's automated technology, our pharmacy is now able to adapt to this growth and improve patient safety at the bedside."
Other challenges the hospital pharmacy experienced were the limited amount of available space and increasing efficiency in its inventory. With AutoPharm3 and AutoCarousel HD, York Hospital will be able to decrease inventory by at least 10% and be able to store more in a smaller space. The automated carousel provides maximum storage in an organized, accessible and compact footprint.

"We often hear from our customers about their increasing demands and limited space in their pharmacies," said Carla Corkern, Chief Executive Officer. "Talyst products help our customers minimize storage footprint, while also improving patient safety with our barcoding technology."

The perpetual inventory system provided by Talyst's enterprise-class AutoPharm software will also have significant impacts on the way York Hospital stocks, manages and tracks medication. The implementation will be finished by the end of fiscal year 2012.

RFID – An Alternative to Barcodes at the Bedside?

Barcoding has become established in several industries as an inexpensive and reliable automatic identification technology that can overcome human error in capturing and validating information. In the decades since its creation, barcoding has become highly standardized, resulting in lower costs and greater accessibility. Indeed, word processors now can produce barcodes, and many inexpensive printers print barcodes on labels. Most current barcode scanners autodiscriminate between 12 and 15 symbologies and all their variants without requiring configuration or programming and, when programming is required, these same barcodes scanners can be programmed for specific uses by simply scanning the appropriate barcodes within the scanner’s user manual.

Despite these significant developments, the adoption of barcoding has been slower in the healthcare sector than the retail and manufacturing sectors. Barcoding can capture and prevent errors during medication administration and is now finding its way from the bedside into support operations within the hospital. A study from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston showed that the number of near misses detected by barcode scanning at the bed side could be cut in half by implementing barcode verification of medications at dispensing or compounding (Cooley, 2008).

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