Bar coding is getting a lot of attention in the healthcare industry these days. Around the world, healthcare providers, the pharmaceutical and device manufacturers that supply them, and the governments that regulate them are searching for ways to reduce medical errors and costs associated with providing quality healthcare products and services. Bar coding can assist healthcare providers by ensuring accuracy in medication delivery, pharmaceutical identification, patient procedure, specimen and sample tracking, and current inventory levels. Many governments, including the United States government, are beginning to regulate bar coded labels on pharmaceutical products. This is the first step toward comprehensive automated data collection capabilities within healthcare provider facilities.

Hospitals and Provider Facilities
As a leading provider of bar coding printers, Barcode Solutions Limited has the experience, technology, and products to make your bar coding project succeed. Barcode Solutions Limited has partnered with numerous leading healthcare information systems providers to ensure that Barcode Solutions Limited printers integrate seamlessly into existing hospital systems. Barcode Solutions Limited Class™ bar code label printers are currently used around the world in healthcare provider facilities in various applications:

> Printing RSS (Reduced Space Symbology) codes on small pharmaceutical packages within the pharmacy to ensure the right patient receives the right medication in the right dose in the right method at the right time, also known as the five patient rights.

> Bar coding patient wristbands and patient files so that all procedures can be accredited to the correct patient's account ensuring accurate and complete billing recovery. Bar coding patient files is also a method to address patient privacy concerns.

> Identifying supplies such as wheelchairs, gurneys, bedpans, to be able to immediately identify the item's location when needed.

Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Manufacturers
Barcode Solutions Limited understands that too many patients endure unnecessary adverse effects due to medication errors. Using Barcode Solutions Limited Class™ printers, healthcare providers are working toward achieving the five patient rights in medications: right patient, right medication, right dose, right delivery, right time. Requiring bar coding on pharmaceutical packaging is seen as the first step toward reducing medical errors attributed to incorrect medications. The United States government, through the Food and Drug Administration, has begun regulating the addition of bar coded labels on human drug products at all packaging levels. Many other governments will begin to regulate pharmaceutical bar coding as well, making it a requirement for pharmaceutical manufacturers.
For pharmaceutical and device manufacturers, bar coding can improve many processes throughout a product's life cycle, including meeting the government,s requirements for bar coding pharmaceutical packaging. Lab specimens can be tracked accurately during the drug creation process. Also, bar coding work-in-process goods complies with the FDA's Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) while helping to lower costs through accurate inventory and distribution efficiencies. Barcode Solutions Limited Class™ printers, in conjunction with DMXConnect connectivity and application solutions, enables pharmaceutical and device manufacturers to achieve compliance by printing unit-of-use labels and generating shipping labels at production speeds.

Governments
While bar coding is an industry accepted technology that has existed for over 25 years, incorporating its use into new applications requires foresight and the assistance of an experienced partner. As a leading provider of bar coding printers to many industries, including healthcare, throughout the world, Barcode Solutions Limited is in a leadership position to provide insight to governments seeking to develop requirements for bar coding pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Barcode Solutions Limited understands that federal governments are tasked with improving the lives of their citizens and one aspect of that role is ensuring the safety of healthcare procedures performed within a healthcare system. Barcode Solutions Limited has actively participated in the United States Food and Drug Administration's development of the Proposal to Require Bar Coding of Human Drug Products. Barcode Solutions Limited responded to the FDA Proposal based upon years of experience with bar coding