Original Article Bedside Barcode Technology: Impact on Medication Administration Tasks in an Intensive Care Unit

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of bedside barcode medication administration (BCMA) on specific tasks performed by nurses during medication administration in an intensive care unit (ICU). Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted on paper-based medication administration (PBMA) and BCMA in an ICU. A prevalidated time and motion observation instrument was used to measure time spent by nurses on tasks associated with PBMA and BCMA. Frequency of each task performed and mean duration of time dedicated to each task were obtained using descriptive statistics. Analysis of covariance was conducted to assess the difference in time spent with various nursing tasks between 2 periods. Factors considered as covariates were age, gender, body weight, length of stay of the patients in the ICU, number of drugs administered, and number of nurses involved. Results: A total of 101 PBMA and 151 BCMA were analyzed. The mean duration of total medication administration time was found to be significantly higher during BCMA (377.8 6 232.8 s) than during PBMA (313.3 6 224.3 s). During BCMA, nurses spent more time on the following medication administration tasks: drug preparation (159.4 vs 27.3 s; P , .05), assisting physician (5.2 vs. 0.4 s; P , .05), universal precautions (3.6 vs 0.0 s; P , .05), and conversing with patients (21.6 vs 15.0 s; P , .05). During BCMA, nurses spent less time on the following medication administration tasks: giving medications (24.7 vs 35.0 s; P , .05), documenting medications (11.3 vs 17.3 s; P , .05), and cross-checking drugs with orders (7.4 vs 7.6 s; P 5 .04). Conclusion: During PBMA, nurses spent more time on documenting medications and less time conversing with patients. This changed significantly after implementation of BCMA. BCMA resulted in nurses spending less time on documentation and more time conversing with patients during medication administration process. Key Words—bedside barcode medication administration, medication administration tasks, time