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Using bar codes to link blood products to the correct recipient: Is using a bar code that only encodes a single number a compliant and a safe practice? |
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An academic hospital system in the Southwestern US is currently implementing the use of labels that contain both eye readable and bar-coded information as part of their phlebotomy routine for collecting patient specimens for laboratory analysis, including pre-transfusion compatibility testing. Eventually, the same kind of labels will be attached to blood component containers and used during administration of blood components, in order to reduce errors; the eye readable information and the bar codes on the blood product container and on the patient ID band must match. A committee was formed to standardize the patient identification to be included in the 2-dimensional bar codes. Surprisingly, rather than encoding multiple patient identifiers into the 2-dimensional bar code, the IS people proposed encoding only a single unique number (the patient's financial encounter number). Upon scanning the bar code, this unique number would prompt a computer system to search for all related patient identifiers, including the patient's name, medical record number and birthdate. Evidently, this process is used by some pharmacy systems. The IS people like this approach, since the ID number has a check digit, in addition to being linked to the medical record number, patient's birth date, etc. The inquiring colleague is concerned that if a bar code has only a single number encoded, that the use of such a bar code might not be compliant with JCAHO national patient safety standards, AABB accreditation standards, or FDA rules. He acknowledges that the proposed system does prompt the computer to bring up the patient name, medical record number and birthdate on a computer screen once the bar code is scanned by the reader. However, he wonders if having multiple patient identifiers encoded in the bar code would make the system more dependable to match the patient to their intended unit of blood. |
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Please submit comments to the e-Network Forum. Ira A. Shulman, MD W. Tait Stevens, MD |
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