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Changes to Unity medication administration wizard to aid barcode scanning

February 24, 2020

Following feedback from our nursing colleagues, changes have been made to the medication administration wizard in Unity regarding how not being able to barcode scan a patient’s wristband, or not barcode scanning the medication is recorded. Barcode scanning of patients’ wristbands and medication is mandatory for all colleagues when administering medication.

Further guidance can on how to use barcode scanning in Unity can be found through QRG MA01 on the Intranet http://myconnect.swbh.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/MA01-Medication-Administration-20190916.pdf?x76096 and through an e-Learning package; https://swbt.premierit.co.uk/dashboard/category/1/module/22.

These changes have occurred to reduce the number of options nurses need to choose from and to drive rapid responses where it is identified that a particular medicine does not scan, or a scanner is malfunctioning. It also allows nursing colleagues to identify when they are administering a Patient’s Own Medication as we know these may not scan as the Trust may not hold on file the unique barcode their medication comes with (if it is a brand and pack size the Trust does not keep). Additionally, at the moment we know that intravenous infusions (but not injections) do not scan, so there is an option to record that you are administering this type of product together with nutritional feeds and freetext medication  that are the other types of medicines we know do not scan at the moment.

With the new drop down recording, we can track which particular medication has not scanned (and if there is a barcode issue resolve this quickly), or if the medication has not scanned for a valid reason (as above). This is then recorded against your individual Unity login, so ward managers can see if there are particular members of the team that need further support through reports.

The changes are as below.

  1. If you are overriding the scanning of a patient’s wristband barcode the new options now are;

If your scanner is not working, or not reading the wristband, choose “Unable to Scan/Not available”. Please note the wristbands have themselves changed recently to aid barcode scanning. It is the linear barcode you are scanning once you open the Medication Administration Wizard. If your patient’s wristband has faded, then you can always a new one quickly and easily from the ward clerks station just by entering the RXK number into the wristband program.

2. If you are overriding the scanning of a medication barcode the new options are;

If you choose that a medication barcode does not scan – it is now mandatory for you to document which medication did not scan by typing it in the yellow box. This is to allow a report to be generated each day that is reviewed by the EPMA team and if the barcode from the Trust Pharmacy is not loaded into Unity, it will be resolved the same day. If the medication barcode was loaded into Unity at the time of administration, this will be documented on the ward manager’s report also.

Remember, if you are obtaining the medicine from a Pyxis cabinet, the labeller on the Pyxis will produce the barcode for the doses you have taken out of the cabinet.

If you choose that a medication is an excluded product – again it is now mandatory for you to document which excluded product or group it is by typing it in the yellow box. This is to allow the EPMA team together with senior nursing colleagues to review which medications and groups of products we exclude from scanning and continually assess based on clinical risk, or to identify if there are trends emerging of what our nursing colleagues feel is excluded but may not be.

Until we have completed our Unity upgrades, the current excluded products are; nutritional feeds, intravenous infusions (i.e. fluid bags without a barcode or where you compound one drug into fluid bag or syringe driver) and freetext medication.

Scanning of the patient’s wristband and medication together forms closed-loop medicines administration which is paramount to the safety of our patients. Together, these ensure patients get the right drug, at right dose, by the right route at the right time.

Should you have any queries or difficulties using barcode scanning, please see your area Unity Super User in the first instance. If further information is needed, please email the EPMA team: swbh.PharmEPMABuild@nhs.net