The health care system is interconnected with technology today, allowing information regarding patients to be passed around easily through electronic means.

Ensuring that the treatments being given to each patient in a hospital environment is one part of the system that is still a potential problem spot for errors or misinterpretations, however, so new methods of making those connections are always being considered.

One method connects the traditional wristbands worn by hospital patients with bar code scanners, a relatively simple system that requires little in terms of added infrastructure and can make it easier to be certain patients receive the right care.

Bar codes have been used in many industries, and are becoming more popular in the medical field, according to Scott Hirst, director of patient safety monitoring for Precision Dynamics Corp. (PDC), a producer of wristbands and identification products for the healthcare industry.

'We’ve worked for years on development of positive patient identification, first through the development of wristbands for human-readable methods, from traditional writing or stamped on information up to now printing with an inkjet," Hirst related. 'In the last while, though, we’ve been working on automatic iden-tification systems. We need to be able to improve the data that we have, and connect that information throughout the health care system." The use of written records and medication orders is always open to the potential of human error ... whether it be a transcription error or simple misreading of handwriting. Either way, if a medication is misdirected or test is done on the wrong patient, the results can be potentially disastrous. Scanning a bar code that has been produced with the patient’s specific information can help to reduce those dangerous errors.

Recently, PDC reps were on hand at the American Association of Blood Band Transfusion Medical Expo in Montreal to discuss the needs for accurate and effective identification technology for transfusions and blood collection. 'While new solutions are becoming available to improve transfusion verification and cross matching, the bigger issue will depend on the technology of patient identification," Hirst said. 'That’s why it is crucial that blood drawn be accurately identified and tied to the correct patient during the blood collection process." Bar code automation is a step towards that added accuracy in the identification process, Hirst pointed out. It’s a relatively simple system that can be connected into the existing data streams in hospitals and provide quick access to necessary information that can improve patient treatment. 'Over the last ten years, we’ve focused efforts on our part to emphasize the use of bar codes," Hirst said. 'Around 80 percent of hospitals in the United States market are using some sort of automation now. About 20 percent are using bar codes... but only about five percent are actually scanning them." The issue with many hospitals isn’t the technology, it’s the overall cost in a challenging economic situation, Hirst pointed out. 'Acceptance is moving at a very rapid rate, but the actual implementation of these systems is slow because of the infrastructure cost... you can put bar codes all over the place, but without a scanner, you can’t use it," he said. 'It’s not a matter of the users not wanting to use it, it’s about their ability to use it." To implement a bar code system, hospitals need just three things: a printer that can generate print-on-demand wristbands or labels, a scanner to take that information and input it to the computer, and the software to both read and produce the codes. The investment is relatively minimal when considered against the need to protect patients and their information. 'The workflow improvement and accuracy, the removal of transcription errors, and the building of the electronic health record are all positive," Hirst said. 'Protection and privacy of the patient’s information is paramount, and the only way to connect all of that efficiently is through automation. Without it, you rely on human entry that reduces privacy and is more likely to produce errors." PDC is hoping to encourage more hospitals to move into the use of bar code automation, and is also working on developing more techniques for future uses. The use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags is a step that has already been implemented in a few places, but again is limited by infrastructure. Unless technology is included when hospitals are upgraded, it’s not likely to become more widespread for some time. 'We expect to continue to see bar codes be the preferred automation method for patient identification," Hirst said.