UPDATE: POC Instruments and Errors reading Barcodes

We use Epic and have 6 different instrument types and haven't had that problem (perhaps I should add "yet").  Whenever we've had problems patient ID numbers, it has turned out to be that something else was scanned by mistake or a manual entry was made incorrectly.  I'm interested in the other responses.  Good luck!

Hi Mary,

We have been experiencing the same issue here at MGH.  What I've been told is that each time there's an EPIC upgrade, the glitch that causes something in the barcodes to not print properly returns.  If a site has this issue (not all sites do and we are very large, have many types and models of printers, so it's not universal), we contact them and ask that they submit a ticket to our IT Helpdesk to set the printer(s) back to the pre-upgrade settings.  That seems to solve the problem.  Until the next EPIC upgrade!!!!

Deb

Deb Capraro Phaup

Point of Care

Pathology Services, MGH, J234A

617-726-6482

Mary,

We had the same issue.  Our new wireless glucose meters read 2D barcodes.  This was added to the patient wristband along with the linear barcode.  We set our meters to scan the 2D only.  It seems to have eliminated those errors.

I have Meditech and am seeing a ! being inserted on some accounts and the numbers being rearranged. It only seems to affect my glucometers though. 

Andrea Spence how do you set the glucometers to only read 2D barcodes?

We have this problem currently with our iSTATs and PxP glucometers: having letters or symbols appear in the scanned barcode for the patient ID.  This is caused by several reasons: barcode printer not printing correctly, dirty/damaged wristbands and dirty scanning ports on the meters themselves.  We monitor all testing for tests that fail to upload to the patients medical record due to invalid patient ID's.  When this occurs we contact the user and CC the manager with the test info and a request that they complete a "POC Correction Form" that provides the lab with the necessary data to correct the patient ID and push it to the medical record.  

Depending on your system and how its built you may be able to address this within the system (blocking test from being performed that are not valid patient IDs) or it may be a matter of user education and Leadership support to help address the ones that need to be resolved.

I would recommend that you stress to your nursing leadership that these undocumented tests that are potentially being used to treat patients with are a liability issue.  It only takes one undocumented test to lose a court case costing millions.

We are currently upgrading our system and I have already began addressing this with the new build.  My goal is to prevent testing if the patient ID scanned isn't valid in the first place with a caveat to allow for emergency testing.

Hi Jeremy,

Would be possible to get a copy for your  POC Correction Form ?  I had something come up the other day and wished I had that type of form.

Thank you,
Char
charlene.swanson@rushcopley.com

We have had to reprogram the actual scanner when they are a separate part of the analyzer.  (i.e. GEMS ).  We also had to have Telcor strip the leading character for the Signature Elite on the patient wrist band (Account #).

Jill,

We use the ABBOTT Freestyle Wireless Meter.  There is a page in the configuration menu where you can check off the 2D barcode.  Prior to getting the wireless meters we had the older version that required scanning the linear.  If we hadn't moved to the wireless we were going to see if the patient wristbands could be configured to read accept numeric characters vs. alpha numeric.  We thought that might take care of the problem.  

Char,

 

We have an interactive form that changes with the meter type and options the users selects.  This is done to modify the form template to guide the users to submit the appropriate information needed for the specific type of issue at hand.  There is also some guidance on how to prevent the same issue in the future dependent on the issue type.

 

This form can be found within the HIS system as a quick link  button and also on the system intranet for all users to easily find.  It is included within their eLearning as well.

See your email, hope it helps.