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Article: FDA issues final bar coding rule for drugs and blood.(Policy Watch)(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Healthcare Financial Management
- Article date:
- April 1, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Healthcare Financial Management Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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On February 25, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule requiring bar codes on most drugs commonly used in hospitals and on container labels for blood and blood components intended for transfusion. The rule is key to industry implementation of information systems that reduce medical errors.
The FDA estimates that over a period of 20 years, the rule will help prevent nearly 500,000 adverse events and transfusion errors and save $93 billion as the result of lower healthcare costs and a reduction in lost work time due to adverse events. Bar coding systems also are expected to create administrative efficiencies.
The final rule does not ...