Medical errors are increasingly becoming a serious concern among medical practitioners and the public. These errors occur in almost any healthcare setting, including nursing homes, hospitals, surgery centers, and pharmacies. The most common medical mistakes include delayed diagnosis, delays in treatment, failure to take proper precautions, technical errors, and medication errors. Medical errors are inevitable and are constantly repeated constantly since human beings are prone to errors (Bokhari,2019; Jayanthilladevi et al.,2020). The errors are caused by inappropriate identification of the patients, inadequate assessment, failure with medical equipment as well as poor documentation and labeling of specimens. Some medical errors cannot cause considerable damage but other can result in indisputable damage to either patients or medical practitioners. It is estimated that every year most patients are affected by medication errors which leads to unnecessary expenses in HealthCare (Xantus & Zaveri,2021). Medical errors are also believed to be among the causes of death in the United State.
Bokhari (2019) indicates that identifying and analyzing medical errors is fundamental in finding potential solutions to this problem. One of the most recent advancements in the medical industry is the utilization of technology in healthcare operations. To minimize these errors, many healthcare organizations now depend on modern technologies such as the use of barcodes, patient wristbands, and biometrics (Gupta & Chaudhary,2021). These technologies are of great impact on medical institutions, medical practitioners, and treatment management. Leaders in the health industry suggest that using technology also helps to facilitate patient safety. This paper will discuss the impact of using technologies such as barcode systems and biometrics in healthcare operations. It will also discuss the limitations of such technologies and how they can be minimized.
Literature Review
Barcode Technology
Medication use is a sophisticated operation that involves health practitioners including nurses and pharmacists. Medical operations such as drug dispensing, administration as well as transcription may pose deadly risks because of serious errors and patient harm (Tariq et al.,2021). Errors related to medication occur in all medical settings. These errors may result from human factors that are caused by fatigue and negligence. Insufficient knowledge while handling medications is also attributed to these errors. Previous studies indicate that a high count of hospitalized patients is harmed due to adverse drug problems caused by medication errors. Therefore, it is important to identify and mitigate the risks to prevent such incidences.
It is estimated that there were 65% medication errors between January to December 2016. To reduce the errors there was a need to improve the medication management system. Barcode Medication Administration (BCMA) technologies were therefore identified to improve medication processes by automating verification processes in medication and utilizing electronic medication administration records (Mogharbel et al.,2020). Barcodes information on medication packs as well as the patient’s barcode identification wrist bands allows the medical practitioner to scan and verify details before drug administration. It helps to improve medical operations and minimize medication errors. Consequently, the technologies provide effective and quality treatment for patients. However, barcoding technology does not fully guarantee against medical errors. This is because of the vulnerability of electronic devices to viruses. It is also attributed to, software and hardware malfunctioning. Previous studies show that common medication error occurs due to system failure which results in delays in accessing patients’ records (Naidu & Alicia,2019). In addition, the use of these systems is expensive which is a disadvantage in implementing them in small private medical entities.
Biometrics Technology
Biometrics technology involves the recognition of people based on their physical or behavioral characteristics. The devices are used to recognize fingerprints, facial patterns, or retinal patterns of a human. These techniques of identification cannot be stolen or forgotten since each scan differs for each individual. Nguyen & Kaufman (2019) indicates that most institutions commonly use a combination of these criteria’s depending on the security level required.
The use of biometrics has significant impacts on Healthcare institutions all over the world. It contributes greatly to decreasing medical errors previously associated with healthcare providers. For instance, it makes it easier to identify patients of different age groups due to the uniqueness of their authentication features. In addition, patient privacy and safety are significantly impacted through this technology because patient information is well presented and documented. Utilizing biometrics also reduces cases of fraud committed against patients by health practitioners. The use of fingerprint authentication is time-saving and highly accurate It is also easy to use recognition devices that are flexible and can be used in many environments (Nguyen & Kaufman,2019).
Previous studies indicate that the use of biometrics has resulted in effectiveness and accuracy in healthcare records. Leaders in the health sector continue encouraging the implementation of biometrics technologieshealthcentre both nationwide and internationally. Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act (2009) was established to help in reducing abuse and fraud. It was also meant to increase the confidentiality of patient information as well as secure medical data (Nguyen & Kaufman,2019). However, the implementation of biometrics technology does not fully eliminate medical errors. This is because of the vulnerability of authentication devices to viruses. The biometrics-based software and hardware have the tendency of malfunctioning which poses a concern about this technology (Nguyen & Kaufman,2019). In addition, the use of these systems is expensive which becomes a disadvantage in implementing it in some private medical settings.
Advantages of Technology in Healthcare
The use of technology has become an integral part of the health industry today. Developing and implementing the right technology in medicine can assist with improved quality, increased efficiency, and reduced costs (Mogharbel et al.,2020). Some of the benefits of using technology include the facilitation of communication between clinicians, improved medication safety, increased access to medical information as well as reduced potential medical errors.
Reduces Medication Errors
Medication errors are believed to be the major cause of iatrogenic diseases. Introducing technology in medicine has been the focus to improve medical operations and prevent these errors. Prescribing medicines is the most common medical error that can result in serious health complications. The use of bar code helps in reducing medication errors by electronically verifying that the right dose of a specific drug is administered to the right patient through the appropriate route at the right time (Mouattah & Hachemi,2021; Mogharbel et al.,2020). Wristband barcodes allow easy identification of patients. The use of technology also enables the healthcare provider to send prescriptions electronically to the pharmacist which can help reduce prescription errors. Introducing barcodes on drugs and specimen vials helps in avoiding confusion during drug administration and laboratory tests respectively. Before these advancements nurses used manual tags on medication which is both inefficient and error-prone. It is time-consuming and also tiresome. In addition, the tags may sometimes fall off which made it difficult to keep track of the medication.
Reduces Fraud in Healthcare
Fraud has become a major concern in health institutions with the increasing cases of cyber-attack. Patients commit fraud in medical centers by providing false data when seeking medical services. A health practitioner can also commit fraud by selling forged prescription drugs which can lead to severe complications to the patient’s health. Therefore, the utilization of biometrics technologies such as fingerprints and iris scans can significantly reduce these types of fraud in health facilities. Biometric authentication provides more accurate readings during patient identification since they recognize unique behavioral or physical characteristics (Nguyen & Kaufman,2019). It is more efficient compared to other vulnerable security criteria such as the use of passwords and PINs. This technology helps in eliminating any potential attempt of fraud by individuals by posing as another patient to access medical services. it also helps in patient verification which guarantees the medical practitioners that they are operating with appropriate medical and demographic information.
Biometrics also offers an accurate and effective solution in a hospital where there are restricted areas that are only accessible by privileged personnel (Nguyen & Kaufman,2019). Before the establishment of biometrics, people used key cards which tended to be misplaced or stolen leading to information breaches in health institutions. use of biometrics is ideal because it is impossible to replicate the authentication characteristics of a person.
Minimizes administrative tasks and language barriers
Biometric technology reduces time wastage and traffics health centers through fast identification processes and signing in of patients. The technology allows health practitioners to replace patients’ passwords, cards, and PINs while still protecting their medical privacy (Nguyen & Kaufman,2019). It also enhances quick access to patient records which saves time, reduces medical costs as well as reduces clerical errors associated with the fatigue of health workers. The use of biometrics facilitates improving treatment services by eliminating communication issues between patients and health practitioners. For example, can easily identify various problems even if the patients cannot effectively communicate their illnesses. It is achieved through scanning patients’ voices which allows access to their health records with all known illnesses.
Limitations of Technology in Healthcare
The use of technology in healthcare is linked to legal and ethical issues since they work with the personal data of the patients (Mogharbel et al.,2020; Tariq et al.,2021). Cyber-attacks can result in information breaches which becomes a major challenge while utilizing these types of technologies. Information breach exposes patients’ privacy which can put their lives in danger. Implementation of barcodes and biometrics technology does not fully eliminate medical errors. This is because of the vulnerability of electronic devices to viruses. The software and hardware utilized in such technologies have the tendency of malfunctioning which poses a concern about this technology. In addition, the use of these systems is expensive which becomes a disadvantage in implementing it in some private medical settings.
Conclusion
The use of technologies such as biometrics and barcode systems can help in improving healthcare services to the publicities technologies facilitates proper data entry, avoiding confusion during patient identification, and also enhances the effective administration of medicines (Xantus & Zavori,2021; Maereg et al.,2020). It is recommended that medical practitioners should be equipped with sufficient knowledge about medical errors and their negative impacts on the healthcare sector. The establishment of policies in health institutions will ensure the ethical and lawful application of biometrics is maintained (Nguyen & Kaufman,2019). The challenge of devices malfunctioning can be mitigated by regular testing and improving on these technologies. Furthermore, educating the patient is a major tool that can help to improve their ability to enhance the utilization of barcodes and biometrics technologies
References
Gupta, H., & Chaudhary, N. (2021). The practice of automated drug dispensing technology on the reduction of medication errors in the medication process. International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Review and Research, 70(2). https://doi.org/10.47583/ijpsrr.2021.v70i02.002
Jayanthilladevi, A., Sangeetha, K., & Balamurugan, E. (2020). Healthcare biometrics security and regulations: Biometrics data security and regulations governing PHI and HIPAA act for patient privacy. 2020 International Conference on Emerging Smart Computing and Informatics (ESCI). https://doi.org/10.1109/esci48226.2020.9167635
Maereg, A., Lou, Y., Secco, E., & King, R. (2020). Hand gesture recognition based on near-infrared sensing wristband. Proceedings of the 15th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications. https://doi.org/10.5220/0008909401100117
Mogharbel, A., Dowding, D., & Ainsworth, J. (2020). Physicians’ use of the computerized physician order entry system for medication prescribing: Systematic review (Preprint). https://doi.org/10.2196/preprints.22923
Mouattah, A., & Hachemi, K. (2021). Estimation of medication dispensing errors (MDEs) as tracked by passive RFID-based solution. International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics, 16(3), 89-104. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijhisi.20210701.oa6
N., A. (2021). An improved authentication scheme for wireless sensor network using user biometrics. Privacy and Security Challenges in Location-Aware Computing, 220-234. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-7756-1.ch010
Naidu, M., & Alicia, Y. L. (2019). Impact of Bar-Code Medication Administration and Electronic Medication Administration Record System in Clinical Practice for an Effective Medication Administration Process. DOI: 10.4236/health.2019.115044
Naidu, M., & Alicia, Y. L. (2019). Impact of bar-code medication administration and electronic medication administration record system in clinical practice for an effective medication administration process. Health, 11(05), 511-526. https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2019.115044
Nguyen, N., & Kaufman, E. (2019). Biometric technologies. Geography. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199874002-0209
Popescu, I. (2022). Measuring and improving patient safety in Canada. Patient Safety, 48-57. https://doi.org/10.33940/med/2022.9.7
Rasha Mohammadmaki Bokhari. (2019). Improving patient safety and reducing medical errors in Saudi healthcare organizations. Journal of medical and pharmaceutical sciences, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.26389/ajsrp.r101218
Xantus, G., & Zavori, L. (2021). Learning from errors. Teamwork in Healthcare. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94126
write