Best Practices in Positive Patient ID Programs

The major challenges of the present health care system of the United States are to provide quality care, increase patient safety and cut rising health care cost.

The use of health information technology has over time proven effective in alleviating these challenges. One of the major issues in the rising cost, which can ultimately affect the rest of the challenges, is medical error. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies Report of 2006 indicated that of all the medical errors, medication administration mistakes have ranked among the most, harming at least 1.5 million people every year. As the health care industry increasingly adopts electronic medical records (EMR) systems and other technologies to drive patient safety improvements, positive patient identification (PPID) has become a "must" for nursing in a clinical setting. Join Jennifer Grigg, facility director of Clinical Informatics, and Sheila Alima, Clinical Informatics coordinator at Banner Estrella Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, to learn best practices for implementing and sustaining bar-coded technology into the process of medication administration. Learning Objectives: •You will be able to describe barcode technology. •You will be able to discuss key factors in selecting a barcode technology program for medication administration. •You will be able to discuss support needed to successfully implement barcode technology. •You will be able to identify proper monitoring of barcode technology programs after implementation. •You will be able to discuss the future of barcode technology and nursing informatics.