Positive Patient Identification: Eliminating Drug Administration Errors
Positive Patient Identification is a safety feature included in Optimum Clinicals for greater protection against administering medications to the wrong patient.
Using handheld scanners that take advantage of Barcode and RFID technology, Positive Patient ID helps staff select and display resident profiles by scanning an identification bracelet. Then depending on the level of detail desired, nurses scan each drug in the medication drawer or the special barcode label on/in a resident’s medication draw.
Once a drug is about to be administered the Resident’s barcode is rescanned and an alarm goes off should any conflicts or alerts exists in the resident’s profile.
Computer Actions:
Scan 1: Patient record is retrieved and the eMAR is displayed.
Scan 2: Drugs or Special Label is scanned. If multiple scans are done, each scan is checked against Patient Order conflicts to rule out potential dangers.
Scan 3: Resident is rescanned to positively identify the resident and an alarm is issued if the wrong resident bracelet is scanned.
Special Considerations:
- Not all the medications are packaged with a barcode containing the Order number.
- Special medications come individually packaged.
- Bingo cards usually have a barcode that can be printed on the package.
- Orders requiring pretest and results determine dosage are problematic in the case where individual drugs are scanned and recorded as given to the patient.
- Bracelet Printing Machine
- Label Printing Machine
- Wireless Barcode Scanner
- Identification Bracelets
- Special Labels for Med Carts
