ArticleBMJ health & care informatics2025
Barcode medication administration system use and safety implications: a data-driven longitudinal study supported by clinical observation.
Article in BMJ health & care informatics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Facilitators and barriers in using barcode technology to ensure safe medication dispensing, preparation, and administration in a children's hospital: a focus group study for clinical pharmacists.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2026Article
- "It's Not Just a System Error": A Qualitative Study of Nurses' Perspectives on Medication Safety in Saudi Hospitals.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Beyond the 'Go-Live': why context matters in EHR implementations.BMJ health & care informatics · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesBarcode medication administration (BCMA) systems may improve patient safety with successful integration and use. This study aimed to explore the barriers and enablers for the successful use of a BCMA system by examining the patterns of medication and patient scanning over time and potential safety implications.
methodsRetrospective longitudinal study informed by prospective clinical observations using data extracted from five hospital wards over the first 16 months after implementation to determine trends in medication and patient scanning rates, reasons for non-compliance and scanning mismatch alerts. Regression models were applied to explore factors influencing medication scanning rates across wards of different specialties.
resultsElectronic data on 613 868 medication administrations showed overall medication scanning rates per ward ranged from 5.6% to 67% and patient scanning rates from 4.6% to 89%. Reported reasons for not scanning medications were 'barcode not readable' and 'unavailability of scanners'. Scanning rates declined over time and the pattern of reason codes for not scanning also changed. Factors associated with higher scanning rates included a locally led quality improvement (QI) initiative, the medication administration time and the medication formulation, for example, tablets and liquids. Overall, 37% of scanning alerts resulted in a change in user action. Staff tried to comply with the BCMA system workflow, but workarounds were observed. DISCUSSION: Compliance with BCMA systems varied across wards and changed over time. QI initiatives hold promise to ensure sustained use of BCMA systems.
conclusionsBCMA systems may help to improve medication safety, but further research is needed to confirm sustained safety benefits.
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