Administration and Blood Transfusion System in a Tertiary Hospital

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the clinical application of a bar code medication administration and blood transfusion system and to identify its effects from the aspect of patient safety and nurse satisfaction in a tertiary hospital. Methods: The system in this study was PDA with bar code reading capability and wireless networking function. The logs created during application of the system and administration error reports were analyzed. For nurses' satisfaction with the system, data were collected from 337 nurses using the instrument developed by Otieno et al. and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: The system application rate was 98.8%, and the main failure cases in the system application included bar code or network related factors. When the system was applied, 0.02% of errors were prevented. The nurses were satisfied with the system from the aspect of patient safety, however relatively less satisfied with the system from the aspect of work efficiency. Conclusion: The results of the study indicate the usefulness for patient safety of applying the bar code medication administration and blood transfusion system to clinical practice. However technological improvements including bar code and network communication are necessary to ensure higher work efficiency in nursing practice.