Intelligent Barcodes in Healthcare

Traceability of Infant Feeds at CHI at Temple Street

The Special Feeds Unit (SFU) of Temple Street Children's Hospital prepares up to 400 infant feeds a day and up until 2018, tracked those feeds to individual patients using a paper-based traceability system which was cumbersome, time-consuming and prone to error. In April 2018, the hospital implemented a standards-based traceability database, barcode labelling and a scanning system that could capture the critical data about each product (expiry date or best before date, batch number, location within the hospital e.g. store or ward, the staff member that delivered or prepared the feed and ultimately the patient that received it). This meant that the feeds could be tracked from 'Goods-In' to the feeds preparation area, to the ward and ultimately to the patient. The implementation of intelligent barcodes in the SFU saved time, improved patient safety and made the recall process faster and easier.

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