Meaningful Use: The Next Stage for BCMA
February 23, 2012 | In: Healthcare Barcoding Influencers
By Jamie Kelly
Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare, March / April 2012
On February 23, 2012, CMS took the next step toward meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) by proposing Stage 2 criteria. In 2 years, CMS has provoked dramatic change in the EHR landscape, stimulating nearly 2,000 hospitals and more than 41,000 doctors to invest in IT with $3.1 billion in Stage 1 payments.
The proposed Stage 2 rule spans the healthcare continuum, but one objective, in particular, presents a significant opportunity to address a top source of patient harm. The criterion calls for 10% of medication orders to be tracked in electronic medication administration records (eMAR) that “automatically documents the administration of medication into certified EHR technology” using “assistive technology” (for example radio frequency identification [RFID] or electronically readable tagging such as barcoding.)
Since the mid-1990s, hospitals have been pairing barcoding with eMAR to achieve multiple goals including improved patient safety. Scanning facilitates compliance with The Joint Commission’s (TJC) National Patient Safety Goal for positive patient identification. More advanced systems support bedside verification of the correct medication, dose, and time of administration. Yet, one of the greatest benefits of barcode medication administration (BCMA) is real-time automated capture of accurate administration data.
Because the medication-use process is cyclical, delays and inaccuracies in documentation may impact prescriber therapy decisions. For example, a dose of warfarin is administered to a patient, but the nurse is interrupted before she can document the administration on the MAR. Meanwhile, the physician decides to increase warfarin dose based on recent lab results. Unaware of the dose already given, the physician orders the new higher total daily dose. If not caught by pharmacy or nursing, the new order may result in duplicate dosing and associated toxicities. With BCMA, administering is documenting. As the caregiver scans her badge, the patient wristband and the medication, the information is automatically, accurately, legibly captured and time-stamped. Both the physician and the reviewing pharmacist see the already administered dose and proceed with a smaller “booster” dose for the remainder of the day…
Read the full article: http://www.psqh.com/