20 Dec '13
UZ Leuven introduces bedside scanning
Summary
Leuven’s University Hospital is the first in Europe to install bedside scanning of medication barcodes to improve safety for patients
New system will help prevent medication errors
From now on, no patient at Leuven’s University Hospital is allowed to take a pill before it is scanned at the bedside. The system has been designed and installed to prevent medication errors, which annually cause about 150 deaths and thousands of incidents in Belgium.
Bedside scanning is already widespread In the United States, but only a few European hospitals have started to test it. UZ Leuven is the first hospital in Europe that is using the system for all of its patients.
Each medicine is first re-packaged as one-day doses with unique barcodes. The nurse first scans the barcode of the patient and then the barcode of the medicine. The computer checks whether the dose is meant for that patient, if the patient has any allergies that need to be considered and if the combination of medications is risk-free.
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