Hospital barcode label printing can help prevent medication errors. Statistics on preventable medical mistakes are sobering and have caught the attention of governmental agencies like the FDA, as well as the general media. This can create very bad publicity for a hospital trying to explain a medically-preventable error.
In 2006, the FDA began requiring drug manufacturers to supply barcodes on most prescription drugs and some over-the-counter drugs. The primary rationale was to prevent medication errors. The FDA calculates that this rule will cause 500,000 fewer adverse medical events over 20 years. Furthermore, "hospitals are expected to avoid litigation associated with preventable adverse events, reduce malpractice liability insurance premiums, and increase receipts from more accurate billing procedures," the agency reports.
The FDA's focus on barcoding brought the technology to the attention of hospital IT directors, who began to consider how hospital barcode label printing could be used to improve a wide range of hospital processes.
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