Cardinal Health launches ReadyScan service

Cardinal Health has announced the launch of the ReadyScan services for the improvement of patient safety. The service provides hospitals with unit-of-use packages of pharmaceuticals with barcodes to assist medical staff in the verification of treatments before administration.

The company quotes figures from the Institute of Medicine that estimate the annual financial cost to hospitals of medication errors as $3.5 billion (1.78 billion pounds), with 1.5 million patients injured as a result of such mistakes each year.

A barcode system to confirm patient identity and the correct pharmaceuticals can reduce such errors by nearly 70 per cent, Cardinal Health claims.

Mark Parrish, chief executive officer of the healthcare supply chain services sector of Cardinal Health, reported that the company head developed the service make the task of medicine verification at the bedside simpler for hospitals.

“ReadyScan is an extremely efficient method for hospitals to seamlessly order and receive unit-dose barcoded pharmaceuticals that aren’t already available in this type of packaging.”

The new service will be fully integrated into the company’s CardinalAssist replenishment system used in the Pyxis MedStation.

Also this week, the company presented its end-to-end medication management technologies at the 41st Mid-Year Clinical Meeting and Exhibition for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

Products and services shown at the event included ReadyScan, in addition to CareFusion wireless patient identification and the next generation Alaris PC unit for hospital infrastructure.