• Ken Sakushima, Reona Umeki, Akira Endoh, Yoichi M Ito, and Yasuyuki Nasuhara.
• Department of Regulatory Science, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
• Technol Health Care. 2015 Jan 1; 23 (3): 267-74.

BackgroundBar-code technology, used for verification of patients and their medication, could prevent medication errors in clinical practice.ObjectiveRetrospective analysis of electronically stored medical error reports was conducted in a university hospital.MethodsThe 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.ResultsA 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.ConclusionBar-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.

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