Impact of barcode medication administration systems on patient safety: a rapid review

Abstract

Introduction: Patient safety is currently a central concern within healthcare systems. Medication administration represents one of the most critical stages of care delivery, in which the prevention of errors is of utmost importance. The wide variety of available pharmaceuticals, extensive medical prescriptions, and the need for precise medication administration in complex clinical environments make this process particularly susceptible to human error. It is therefore essential to adopt strategies with the potential to reduce such safety incidents, among which the implementation of barcode scanning technology stands out.

Objectives: Evaluate the impact of medication administration through the barcode reading system on patient safety.

Methodology: A Rapid review of the literature was conducted following JBI methodology and PRISMA guidelines, with searches performed in the EBSCOhost database aggregator and the PubMed database. The descriptors were “patient safety”, “barcode medication administration” and “medication errors”. The inclusion criteria encompassed documents in portuguese or english, with full text available, published between 2018 and 2023, and comprising quanti-tative studies regardless of their design. Two independent reviewers conducted screening, data extraction, and quality assessment.

Results: Of the 122 articles initially identified, six were selected for full analysis after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. These studies were conduct-ed in several European countries (the Netherlands, France, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) and North America (the United States of America), all in hospital settings (emergency departments, inpatient units, and day hospi-tals) and were quantitative in nature. The review included three comparative studies, one quasi-experimental study, and two randomised controlled trials, carried out between 2011 and 2020. The included studies demonstrated that the implementation of BCMA systems leads to a significant reduction in medication errors.

Conclusion: Medication administration using barcode reading is a valuable technological innovation, with a significant impact on patient safety. By con-tributing to the reduction of medication errors, optimizing the accuracy of in-formation and providing a reliable electronic record, this technology plays a fundamental role in preventing events that could cause harm to patients.