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Safety organizations, drug manufacturers and distributors, hospitals, health information companies and other partners have agreed to promote standardized barcodes for pharmaceutical product labelling throughout the Canadian health care system - from the point of manufacture to the point of drug administration.
Through an initiative led by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP Canada) and the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI), 34 organizations from 6 health care sectors have agreed to adopt GS1 global barcoding standards as the basis of automated drug identification.
This national consensus on a common standard moves Canada one step closer to the kind of identification system that will lead to a reduction in preventable medication errors, particularly in hospitals, says David U, President and CEO, ISMP Canada.
"Various studies have shown that a majority...