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.