Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital Plans to Expand Bar Code Scanning to Blood Product Administration
Bar-code scanning for blood transfusion to help ensure patient safety.
Atlanta, October 8, 2010—Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital has partnered with McKesson to expand the hospital’s use of bar-code scanning technology to blood product administration. The new Horizon MobileCare™ Transfusion solution uses the same approach to positive patient identification now widely used by hospitals for medication administration. Before a patient receives a blood product, the nurse will use a handheld device to scan the bar code on the patient’s wristband and then the bar codes on the blood product to verify a match. An alert will trigger if the order is not correct, prompting the nurse to check the patient’s chart and the doctor’s order.
Early last year, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital (Albany, Ga.) agreed to participate in a testing program designed to verify blood product administration. McKesson then submitted this documentation along with other information to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to obtain 510(k) clearance to provide the use of bar-code scanning for blood product administration. Clearance was granted in May, setting the stage for the solution to be deployed for full-scale use at Phoebe Putney and other hospitals across the country in the near future.
By applying this technology to blood product administration, the convenient handheld device will allow hospitals to provide positive patient identification at the point of care, potentially eliminating the need for manual verification.
Use of this technology also will enable hospitals to implement the 2010 National Patient Safety Goals for patient identification as outlined by The Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies more than 17,000 healthcare organizations and programs in the United States.
“We have been using a bar-code solution for specimen collection for several years. By positively identifying a patient for transfusion administration as well, we are creating a complete closed-loop system that may significantly reduce the possibility of errors,” said Dian Swafford, Transfusion Service Manager, Phoebe Putney.
“Phoebe Putney was truly instrumental in assisting us with the field testing of this device for submission to the FDA,” said John Yount, vice president of product management for Horizon Lab™, McKesson Provider Technologies. “Because of its overriding commitment to patient safety, the medical center was a perfect organization to assist McKesson in documenting the appropriateness of extending bar-code technology into this critical care process. Thanks to their cooperation and efforts, this solution now will be available nationwide within the next year.”
About Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital
Founded in 1911, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital is one of Georgia’s largest comprehensive regional medical centers. A 443-bed teaching hospital with a medical staff of 306 physicians, Phoebe Putney is a regional center for cancer and cardiac medicine. The hospital is one of only six designated perinatal centers in the state of Georgia and is the only provider of neonatal intensive care, cardiovascular surgery and radiation oncology services in the region. The hospital is also home to the Southwest Georgia Clinical Campus of the Medical College of Georgia’s School of Medicine. The campus provides medical students with the clinically intensive third and fourth years of study.
About McKesson
McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality healthcare by reducing costs, streamlining processes, and improving the quality and safety of patient care. Over the course of its 177-year history, McKesson has grown by providing pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management across the spectrum of care; healthcare information technology for hospitals, physicians, homecare and payors; hospital and retail pharmacy automation; and services for manufacturers and payors designed to improve outcomes for patients. For more information, visit www.mckesson.com.