Comparing the working time between Bar-Code Medication Administration system and traditional medication administration system: an observational study

Background: The medical institutions had paid attention to the medication error via Bar-Code Medication Administration system (BCMA) to improve the accuracy of the medication process for patient safety. Yet, the working time of drug delivery was under investigated.

Objectives: Comparing the working time of oral drugs between Bar-Code Medication Administration system and traditional medication administration system.

Methods: Purposive sampling, observational and questionnaire study design was used. Participants were invited from a medical center in North Taiwan, 51 nurses from three neurosurgical wards who were using the BCMA system; 51 nurses from three neurological wards who were using traditional medication administration record (MAR). The working time of oral medication administration including order transcribing, verifying, drug giving, and renew in BCMA and traditional group were observed and recorded.

Results: (1) Working time for oral medication administration reduced from 36.49 to 18.42 s after BCMA implementation. (2) In the same period, working times for oral drug administration were 62.89 and 56.07 s before and after BCMA implementation in the traditional group. (3) Most nurses (66.7%) felt BCMA could save their oral drug administration time under 50%. (4) Frequent crash of the wireless network, which extended the oral drug administration time was the major threat in the process of BCMA implementation. (5) 93.5% nurses think that BCMA could enhance patient oral medication safety and promote quality of oral medication.

Conclusions: The results demonstrated that implementation of BCMA for oral medication could reduce half of the time for oral medication delivery. Nurses coordinated the hardware and software by accommodating the new facilities and operating BCMA system. The stability of wireless Internet was the main threat. However, 93.5% nurses think that BCMA could enhance patient oral medication safety in spite of making more effort in learning new technology.