Implementing Barcode Medication Administration Systems in Public Sector Medical Units

Abstract

Medication errors in healthcare have a high cost since it is one of the main causes of harming a patient; it leads to inefficient utilization of healthcare organization resources. The barcode medication administration system helpsin improving the patients’safety. The purpose of this article isto determine preparatory needs for introducing a Barcoding Medication Administration System (BCMA) in the medical unitsin one of the largest tertiary hospital in Abu Dhabi City, United Arab Emirates. Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) has been employed to describe systematic decision-making by prioritizing different factors that affect the implementation of BCMA and how technology plays a role in helping to reduce or prevent human errors by promoting safety in the health care sectors. Five major domains are identified: leadership, technology, process, education, quality and safety. Leadership was found to be the most important factor oppositely of technology was the least important.