Collaborative Culture Promotes Adoption of Bar Coding

An Except from Pharmacy Practice News:

Community Medical Center (CMC) of Scranton, Penn., had two built-in advantages when it recently launched bar-coded medication administration at the bedside: a $299,000 patient-safety improvement grant from First Priority Health, part of Blue Cross Blue Shield of northeastern Pennsylvania, and a collaborative culture between nursing and pharmacy.

As such, bar-code innovations at the 299-bed health system exist as much in its funding resourcefulness and multidisciplinary cooperation as in the team’s technological streamlining and integration. Led by clinical informatics coordinator and project manager Jeanie Bantell, RN, director of pharmacy services Joe Zarcone, RPh, and vice president and chief information officer Joe Fisne, CMC-Scranton went from concept to live in six months. They used the MediMAR module from Mediware Information Systems, Lenexa, Kan., which shares data with WORx, the MediMAR pharmacy management system that CMC-Scranton has used for the past seven years.

Read the rest of the article at:

www.pharmacypracticenews.com/index.asp?section_id=52&show=dept&article_id=7261

For additional information, download an executive report:

www.mediware.com/mm/safetybydesign