Technology has been proven throughout the ages to be effective in improving patient

care. Through research and evidence technology has been found to create a safer patient care

environment. This proposal will identify benefits, prior evidence of risk, and factors that may

contribute to resistance for implementation of electronic scanning for medication administration

within our facility. I believe that the implementation of this technology will significantly impact

our patient safety and care in a positive way.

The first step in this process would be to evaluate current processes for medication

administration and identify errors and patient outcomes. The importance of identifying current

errors is to justify the fact that a change is needed and will be beneficial to patients as well as

staff. In addition, the system alerts clinicians to potential adverse drug interactions and allergic

reactions (Donna, 2002). The documented evidence of benefits for patient safety are proven

through research of implementation at other facilities of this technology. By using a bar-code

medication administration (BCMA) system that uses hand-held scanners, the Department of

Veterans Affairs (VA) has substantially reduced the occurrence of medication errors (Donna,

2002). The system would also facilitate drug recalls (Clinical rounds, 2002).

Furthermore, the impact of this implementation will be measured throughout the process

and following through the next year. We will be collecting data at the one month, three-month,

six months, and twelve-month marks post implementation. It is at these times that we can include

a survey for staff to provide feedback on how they feel it is working and express any concerns.

The survey will be mandatory and given to all nursing staff. It is through this process that we can

also identify any flaws within the technology interface. Surveys will contain the same exact

questions and will be given to nursing staff only as it is meant for those licensed to administer

medications. The system will include hard stops for scanning the wrong patient, wrong drug,
wrong dosage, or at the wrong time for administrating. As a nurse, this will help to ensure that an

error is not made while giving medication when a warning is issued on the computer. Adequate

training, continuous improvement, and adaptation of workflow to address one's own needs

mitigated process barriers, ongoing vendor involvement, acknowledgment of technology

limitations, and attempts to address them are crucial in overcoming technology barriers. Staff

resistance was addressed through clear communication, identifying champions, emphasizing new

information provided by the system, and facilitating collaboration (Nanji et al., 2009).

Prior to implementation of this change, we will present data and facts to the staff

members so that they can see why a change is necessary. It is important to gather ideas and

concerns from staff throughout. To reduce stress and resistance to change it is necessary to make

the nursing team feel involved and that their opinion and concerns matter. There will be several

meetings prior to and educational classes to learn how to use the new software and the new

processes for administering medications. Nursing staff will need to understand warning messages

that may occur as well. We will train a few people on each shift to be “Super Users” that will be

able to be a resource to other members having difficulty utilizing the system. Unfortunately, this

technology will not be able to roll out in phases and instead will have a “Go Live” date that will

be when we start using the new system.

The planning phase of this change will include presentation through brochures, flyers,

PowerPoint, videos, graphs, computer reminders, and email. This will help to appeal to all the

different learners when presented in many different media. Visual, auditory, and hands on

experiences will be available for all nursing staff prior to and after implementation. Management

will present the statistical data to the staff of current practices and the expected outcomes after

this new technology is put in place. Also, we will need to have pharmacy on board to ensure that
medication is properly labelled with barcodes and are able to be scanned without issues. Before

and after implementation of POC scanning, it is important to ensure that all unit dose

medications and prepackaged items stored in ADMs or dispensed from the pharmacy have a

scannable barcode (Theresa, 2015).

To conclude, the use of this new technology will be safer for patients and create a less

stressful environment for staff. By scanning patient medication prior to administration, it will

reduce medication errors during medication pass times. Scanning medications will reduce stress

on the nurses by knowing the computer is a back up stop system if they were going to make a

mistake. This technology could save lives and that is priceless.

References:

Clinical rounds. Preventing medication errors: scanning for trouble. (2002). Nursing, 32(3), 34.

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Donna, Y. (2002). Veterans Affairs bar-code-scanning system reduces medication

errors. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, (7), 591. Retrieved from

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Nanji KC, Cina J, Patel N, Churchill W, Gandhi TK, Poon EG, … Poon, E. G. (2009).

Overcoming barriers to the implementation of a pharmacy bar code scanning system for

medication dispensing: a case study. Journal of the American Medical Informatics

Association, 16(5), 645–650. https://doi-

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Theresa J., W. (2015). Preparing challenging medications for barcode scanning. American

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