VA NY Harbor Healthcare System

Carmel B. Sanchez, MA, RN

VA New York Harbor Healthcare System's Nursing Informatics Team has just been nationally recognized as the champion of a Bar Code Medication Administration initiative designed to maximize patient safety.

Based on the data from VHA Support Service Center: Nursing Outcomes, the New York Harbor Healthcare specialists showed significant increases rates in wristband and medication scanning performance. A poster titled: Solutions to the challenges of Bar Code Scanning Failures referring to the use by nurses of a specialized software was presented by Carmel B. Sanchez, MA, RN, Nursing Informatics Specialist at the 22nd Annual Summer Institute in Nursing Informatics: National and Global Priorities in Informatics and Health Care.

The poster was recognized by the University of Maryland School of Nursing Summer Institute in Nursing Informatics as First Place: Outstanding Practice Poster Award. This is a team effort including nurses, hard work by everyone involved, support from the senior management, managers, nurse educators and collaboration with multidisciplinary teams namely Pharmacy, IRM and BIOMED.

More specifically, the poster illustrates how Bar Code Medication Administration Managing Scanning Failures software allows nurses to scan each patient's wristband and medication with a bar code scanner. It ensures that the correct patient receives the correct medication and alerts nurses to any errors. It captures information if the system was bypassed and creates reports and alerts Nursing Informatics & Pharmacy to resolve scanning issues in timely manner.