eMAR

National

AHRQ Study Shows Using Bar-Code Technology with eMAR Reduces Medication Administration and Transcription Errors

A new study funded by the Department of Health & Human Services' (HHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) indicates that using bar-code technology with an electronic medication administration record (eMAR) substantially reduces transcription and medication administration errors, as well as potential drug-related adverse events. The study is published in the May 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Bar-code eMAR is a combination of technologies that ensures that the correct medication is administered in the correct dose at the correct time to the correct patient. When nurses use this combination of technologies, medication orders appear electronically in a patient's chart after pharmacist approval. Alerts are sent to nurses electronically if a patient's medication is overdue.

Having bar-code eMAR technologies in place was associated with reductions in errors related to the timing of medications, such as giving a medicine at the wrong time, and non-timing medication administration, such as giving a patient the wrong dose. The study documented a 41 percent reduction in non-timing administration errors and a 51 percent reduction in potential drug-related adverse events associated with this type of error.

The findings have important implications because bar-code eMAR technology is being considered as a 2013 criterion for meaningful use of health information technology under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2010/emarpr.htm