Jerry Fahrni

Quick hit – Barcode scanner consistency

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Jerry Fahrni

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Part of the process of implementing barcode medication administration (BCMA) is evaluating hardware; mostly scanners. There are several makers of barcode scanners including Honeywell, Symbol, Metrologic, Datalogic and Code Corp. Having so many choices always makes the selection process interesting.

One suggestion from several hospitals I spoke with that were already live with BCMA, was to use the same barcode scanner on the nursing floors that were used in the pharmacy. That sounds logical, right? Sure, if the barcode scans correctly in the pharmacy, then nursing should be able to scan the same barcode using the same scanner.

The scanner of choice in our pharmacy department is the the Code Reader 3500 from Code Corp. So of course this is the scanner I recommended in my report to the BCMA hardware sub-committee. For whatever reason, the committee decided to go with a different brand of scanner. Unfortunately the scanners we purchased won’t scan some of the more complex barcodes coming out of pharmacy, making them virtually useless. The scanners purchased by the hospital are on their way back to the wholesaler as I patiently await for round two.

Take away lesson: use the same barcode scanner for the nursing units that the pharmacy department uses to meet their barcoding needs.

Comments

3 responses to “Quick hit – Barcode scanner consistency”

  1. James O’Sullivan

    Out of interest which barcode symbology was being used and which scanner had an issue?

    I agree that its best to use a scanner that is tried and tested for the symbology being used. On the other hand, since the idea behind having standard formats is to be able to interchange compatible hardware, it would also point to a poor implementation of that specific symbology by the second scanner.

  2. Jerry Fahrni

    Hi James,

    It was the Honeywell 4600g scanner and it was having trouble reading the matrix (2D) barcode. Our hardware group didn’t do their homework on the 4600g scanner and it required quite a bit of reprogramming to get it to do what we wanted. It really was a simple concept to just use the hardware we already knew worked, but someone always has a better idea. Overall I have no complaints with Honeywell scanners. In fact they’re very nice, but in this case the model selected was a poor choice.

    I agree with you regarding interchangeable hardware, however the lack of standards when it comes to barcodes in the pharmaceutical industry is still an issue. We typically purchase scanners for the pharmacy that are “above and beyond” what our current needs are so that we won’t get caught off guard in the near future; fingers crossed. Thanks for stopping by.

  3. Mark Neuenschwander

    Wise counsel Jerry. My most successful bar-code clients would concur with you.

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