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Article: Medical safety systems in line with bar codes; The symbols work to identify personnel, patients and drugs
- Article from:
- Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque)
- Article date:
- April 4, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2004 Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque). Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Bar codes aren't just for groceries anymore.
Last month, the Food and Drug Administration ruled that
manufacturers must include linear bar codes on packaging to identify
human drugs and biological products.
The ruling follows local moves to improve medical identification.
"We base our medical safety system on bar codes," said Kevin
Purcell, the inpatient pharmacy supervisor at Mercy Medical Center-
Dubuque. "We're certainly happy to see this. It fits with what we're
doing."
Mercy uses bar codes on employee badges to identify nurses or
other health care practitioners, and bar codes on wristbands identify