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Article: FDA to require bar codes on drugs sold to hospitals Move intended
- Article from:
- Oakland Tribune
- Article date:
- December 9, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2003 Oakland Tribune. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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WASHINGTON -- Inside hospital pharmacies, tiny bar codes just an
eighth of an inch tall adorn the blister packs that hold single-pill
doses of certain drugs, like Dilantin for seizures and Lipitor for
cholesterol.
With a handheld scanner, health care workers guard against
medication mixups by matching each pill's bar code to a hospitalized
patient's wristband and medical chart. It is to ensure the right
person swallows the right dose of the right drug at the right time.
If anything's off, an alarm beeps.
Yet only a few drugs today bear bar codes, and very few hospitals
have the scanners needed to read them. That's about to change.