Third-party repackaging in hospital pharmacy unit dose acquisition

Abstract

Medication errors can occur during every step of the medication-use process, but they occur most frequently during the prescribing and administration stages.1 In fact, “when all types of errors are taken into account, a hospital patient can expect on average to be subjected to more than one medication error each day.”1 One way to prevent some types of medication errors is to administer medications in unit dose packages, as this ensures that the medication name, dosage, and other characteristics are available to the administering professional until the time of medication administration. As a result, administering medications in unit dose packaging is not only considered a best practice but is near universal in its application, with millions of unit dose medications dispensed in hospitals and health systems daily.2 Bar-code technology represents a promising solution to some medication dispensing errors. Bar-code technology saves time, improves accuracy, reduces errors, and is capable of identifying a rare event, something at which human beings are not proficient.3 A study of medication dispensing errors that occurred before and after implementing bar-code technology revealed that bar-code technology in the pharmacy compares favorably with other patient safety interventions.4 Given the high volume of medications dispensed in a hospital, even small reductions in errors will result in significant improvements in patient safety.