Barcode Scanning Mandate in South Australia is Cutting Dispensing Errors in Half

Starting last July, all pharmacies in South Australia were required to start using barcode scanners. Now, about five months later, the early results show a decrease in errors of 50%, according to this article from Pharmacy News. I’m intrigued, however, by the comments of Peter Halstead,  

GS1 Canada’s Basic Store Checkout Product Recall Safeguard Featured by the Country’s Largest Daily Newspaper — Will “High-Tech Healthcare” Ever Get This?

Dana Flavelle, writing for the Toronto Star has brought mainstream media attention to GS1 Canada’s roll out of a solution that lets consumers learn of product recalls at the store checkout. The story carries the headline, “Product recalls soon to be listed at checkout.”  

Bedside Barcodes Help, But Nurses Mobilize to End Distractions, Too

According to Joanne Mette, chief nursing officer at Kaiser Permanente in Hayward and Fremont [California] . . . nurses can be interrupted five to 10 times in the course of giving one medication.  Her story, and that of other San Francisco bay area hospitals  attempting to reduce medication errors is featured in this San Francisco [...]

FDA Launches New ‘Safe Use Initiative’ to Reduce Medication Errors

I go to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website almost every day to glimpse their recent news releases. That’s because sometimes their announcements don’t seem to get much pick up in the usual places. Yesterday they issued this news release. The headline is: FDA Unveils Safe Use Initiative that Targets Preventable Harm from Medication [...]

VA’s ‘Digital Overhaul’ Offers Model of Benefits from Standardized ID-based Patient Services

If you want a glimpse into how the application of patient, medical record, and treatment applications, outcomes and costs can be improved everywhere and for all by a  set of national digital healthcare standards,  

FDA’s Jay Crowley to give UDI Keynote at Upcoming Virtual Trade Show

“The Upside of a Unique Device Identification (UDI) Mandate” is the topic of an online keynote speech that will be given by Jay Crowley, senior advisor for patient safety, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on December 2 as part of the Track & Trace Virtual Trade Show. 

Another Example of Why We Need GS1 and Patient Bedside Barcoding Now!

Okay, yet another example of how bedside medication and barcodes is clearly needed in every hospital now! This recent article includes a brief mention of how  the Veterans Affairs health system implements bedside barcoding:

AP Story Slams Lack of Medical Device Tracking; FDA’s UDI Labeling Gets Brief Mention As Answer

The Associated Press put out a story today that’s getting a lot of traction and that’s good because this report, entitled “US has no good system to track medical implants” is bound to get a lot of average people interested very quickly in what needs to happen. It also might get a lot of the [...]

New FDA Reporting Requirement To Make Food Safer?

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday unveiled a new electronic database where manufacturers must notify the government if they believe one of their products is likely to cause sickness or death in people or animals.

FDA to Require Electronic Safety and Adverse Event Reports by 2010

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to make electronic filing of safety reports mandatory by this time next year according to this news report in Government Health IT. It is a change the FDA says will help it detect emerging safety problems sooner and respond with safety information to the public in less [...]

Pharmacists’ Professional Society Offers Barcode Problem Reporting Center

If you’re not familiar with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) — and especially if you are a pharmacist — you may want to check them out.

Emerging Markets a Key to Drug Infusion Pump Manufacturers’ Growth – And More GS1 Labeling

‘Global Drug Infusion Pumps Market 2008-2012′ is a new research study that’s being made available via companiesandmarkets.com.  

Bedside Barcoding Not Immune to Human Error If Mis-Coded

Many of us see a lot of promise in the future of patient bedside barcoding. There’s no question it will prevent a lot of medication errors

Webcast on Basics of GS1 Standards in Healthcare Now Available On-Line

The webcast “Improving Patient Safety and Supply Chain Efficiency with Data Standards:

FDA Visits Foreign Manufacturers of Medium Risk Medical Devices Once Every 27 Years

Some days I am very optimistic about the changes afoot to make the Food and Drug Administration a stronger, more powerful place. New

GS1 Healthcare US Presenting Aug. 25th Web Seminar on Basics

Improving Patient Safety and Supply Chain Efficiency with Data Standards: The Basics of GS1 Standards in Healthcare is the name of an upcoming web seminar to be offered on August 25th

Drugs with ‘Made in India’ Label In Nigeria May Have Come from China

Okay, we continue to see bad actors in the supply chain and they continue to be . . .

Who Will Ultimately Own the Partient Barcode ID?

There have been a number of stories of late about innovative hospitals turning to bedside barcoding systems and on-site electronic medical records. That’s a good thing as far as it goes. But if I’m in, let’s say, Vermont and I travel to Boston for a Red Sox game and have a coronary event in the [...]

Strong Food Safety Bill Working its Way Through Congress

File this under, ‘It’s about time!” The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that will require more food safety measures. It will give more power to the FDA in demanding recalls and creating a better product tracing

Wristband Barcodes Drive Midland Memorial’s E-Medical Records

Lots of people don’t necessarily understand why it should be so hard and so expensive to initiate an electronic medical records system.