Webinar

This webinar will provide an overview of:

• Medication error rates and their causes;
• The potential for automated systems to reduce preventable errors;
• The ISMP Canada and CPSI’s Canadian Pharmaceutical Bar Coding Project;
• The GS1 global automated identification (i.e. bar coding) standard);
• The Project’s final phase, including plans for community knowledge dissemination; and
• How individual community organizations and practitioners can support the national initiative and future systems development.

At the conclusion of this webinar, participants will understand:

• The rationale for automated systems (i.e., bar coding) to support frontline healthcare practitioners, using a pan-Canadian bar coding standard;
• What the GS1 global standard for automated identification is and how it will be incorporated into medication safety practices;
• How the Project’s multi-sector Joint Technical Statement will assist the evolvement of community and institutional medication practices evolution.

This presentation will be of primary interest to:

• Community care patient care leaders;
• Community care nurses, pharmacists, or other practitioners;
• Healthcare administrators or Board Members of community care organizations whose mandate includes enhancement of community-based patient safety;
• Information System specialists.

Contact Us: webinars@ismp-canada.org

Speaker

Ian Sheppard Ian Sheppard is the national project leader for the ISMP Canada/CPSI Canadian Pharmaceutical Bar Coding Project. Ian joined ISMP Canada as a seconded safety consultant in 2009. He is co-affiliated with the B.C. Lower Mainland Pharmacy Services Safety and Quality Division, including Children’s and Women’s Health Centres of B.C. His past experiences are in medication services within both adult and pediatric care, which encompasses operations management, ambulatory services, and strategic program planning. He has coordinated a number of strategic initiatives such as automated medication distribution and bedside bar code systems, critical care satellite services, retail pharmacy service agreements for special-needs patients, external operational reviews, as well as a number of provincial best practices safety initiatives. Ian has also been a member of the World Health Organization expert panel on spinal medication safety, and has co-developed medical syringe devices for safer spinal medication administration.

Background

Analysis of medication incidents internationally has led to recommendations that healthcare leaders strategically plan for implementation of advanced technologies such as prescriber order entry, electronic medication administration records, bar code verification at the patient point of care, and for high-risk dispensing and compounding in pharmacy. Bar coding, when integrated with other advanced technologies, can serve as a reliable automated method of supporting busy healthcare providers.

Until recently, there has been no accepted pan-Canadian standard for bar codes on commercial pharmaceuticals; creating immense challenges for organizations that wished to develop or acquire this safety technology.

This one-hour webinar will provide an overview of the Canadian Pharmaceutical Barcoding Project including a review of the GSI global standard for automated identification and the ‘key elements’ of the project’s Joint Technical Statement. Participants will learn how the adopted national standard will impact the medication patient safety chain both in community and hospital practices, and how individual practitioners can support the success of this national initiative.

Contact Information