Evidence on the Impact of a Selected Patient Care Technology on Patient Safety, Quality of
Care, And the Interdisciplinary Team.
New digital innovations are revolutionizing the healthcare sector. According to Hanson
and Haddad (2021), nurses spend 70% of their time in direct patient care compared to doctors.
They have a unique role and responsibility as they are usually the last staff in a healthcare setting
to administer medication to patients. Medical errors like medication errors are the leading
hindrance to achieving patient safety and are an index for achieving patient safety. Medication
error is a preventable event that may cause harm to a patient while the medication is still under
the control of a healthcare provider (Owens et al., 2020). According to a report by the Institute of
Medicine, medication errors contribute to up to 98,000 deaths annually, prolonged
hospitalization, high hospitalization bills, and damage to the hospital and staff’s reputation
(Owens et al., 2020).
Many hospitals have adopted technologies like barcode medication administration
(BCMA) to overcome the medication error menace in the healthcare system. According to
Owens et al. (2020), BCMA is an inventory control system consisting of a barcode printer and
reader, mobile computer, computer server, and software that reduce medication errors by
validating and documenting medication electronically. Interdisciplinary collaboration is a crucial
determinant of the success of BCMA in reducing medication errors (ME). According to Macias
et al. (2018), BCMA promotes interdisciplinary collaboration between the IT and the clinical
team through training and solving technical issues for the medical team to ensure easy use of
technology, thus ensuring patient safety. Additionally, this collaboration ensures the correct
capturing and transmission of patient data from the first visit since that is the data that healthcare
providers use to prescribe and administer medication to patients, thus avoiding medication with
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