2. Employees in the healthcare field strive to meet what is
known as the five rights: The Right Patient The Right Drug The
Right Dose The Right Delivery Method The Right Time
3. Medication labelling impacts all of these rights. There are
huge consequences if a patient is not prescribed or administrated
the correct medication. As such it is crucial that health care
facilities have a solution in place that ensures that the correct
medication gets to the correct patient.
4. Medication labels are a critical part of ensuring that the
prescribed type and dosage is administered to the correct person at
the correct time. Creating an appropriate label is an important
part of patient care and safety.
5. Specially formatted labels can be created on-the-spot using
a label printer and label printing software. There are many
different forms of media needed in a healthcare facility as the
labels vary greatly based on the type of container or medication
packaging that needs to be labelled...
6. Syringes require flag labels so as to avoid covering up the
syringe measuring notches; Pill bottles require small labels that
will fit on a limited surface area; An IV bag requires labels with
a specific patient, medication, date and time information; Blood
bags utilize thermal transfer labels so they will last for as long
as the blood needs to be stored. Those labels must also be ISBT 128
certified so that the adhesives will not leak into the bag.
7. Hospitals need to have a way of tracking and tracing
treatments which can be done through labelling. All medication
needs to be monitored from the time it is delivered in bulk to the
stores department right up until it has been administered in a
single dose to the patients.
8. The labels adhered to the medication would have a barcode
that is specific to the patient and their treatment plan. The
patient would be positively identified through their barcode
wristband (for more information about the barcode wristband
solution please see here). When the patients wristband is scanned
along with the medications being prescribed, it generates data
about the patients prescribed medications, the dosage amounts,
frequency of consumption, and the interactions of various
medications when administered together.
9. Hospital pharmacies are also utilizing colour to improve the
ability of hospital staff to distinguish and accurately identify
medications.