During the past ten years barcode labeling has come very far in the medical field and patient safety.

In 2004, the FDA required all prescription drugs, biological products, and over-the-counter drugs be bar coded for scanning and tracking purposes. The goal of this regulation is to eliminate errors in medication. An early Institute of Medicine study showed there were 44,000-98,000 deaths caused by medical errors annually in America and 7,000 of those deaths were medication related. Most errors are results of improper dosage amounts or the incorrect drug is administered to the patient. Not only are problems medication related but laboratory related as well. Delayed diagnosis, additional laboratory testing, treatment of the wrong patient for the wrong disease, and severe transfusion reactions can all be results of wrongly identified specimens. Bar codes in the medical field will help reduce these types of common yet avoidable errors.

The FDA estimated that 50% of all medication errors will be cut with the use of barcode labels. Barcode scanners have 1 error in every 10 million characters while manual keyboard entries have 1 error in every 100 characters.

Bar coding makes it easier to identify supplies, kits, equipment, and other assets, so material management systems can be updated with a simple scan. Also, as samples are being drawn labeling them right away has been proven to decrease errors. Bar codes can help reduce time required to collect data while ensuring accurate information.

To meet the needs of the pharmacy, barcodes need to be sizeable, durable, and legible. Symbology Enterprises offers labels that can meet all these needs as well as a wide range of thermal printers that print high quality barcodes for prescriptions, bottles, vials, IV bags and unit-dose packaging.