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Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine if a specially designed prescription drug label,
incorporating a barcode with both patient- and drug-specific identifiers, could reduce medication
errors/defects unintentionally dispensed to the SP’s patients and prescribers as compared to
prescriptions dispensed with a traditional label without barcode.
Results: The baseline study resulted in 39,923 total prescriptions dispensed with DPMO of 1603
(0.16% of DPMO). The pilot study resulted in 1968 prescriptions dispensed with DPMO of 508
(0.05% of DPMO). The reduction in DPMO in the pilot compared to baseline was 1095 (68.3%
decrease) which was significant to p < .00001.
Results: The baseline study resulted in 39,923 total prescriptions dispensed with DPMO of 1603 (0.16%
of DPMO). The pilot study resulted in 1968 prescriptions dispensed with DPMO of 508 (0.05% of DPMO).
The reduction in DPMO in the pilot compared to baseline was 1095 (68.3% decrease) which was
significant to p < .00001.
Conclusions: The SP prescription label with a barcode containing patient- and drug-specific data
significantly reduced the number of EDDD, improving medication-related patient/prescriber safety.
Medication safety and continuous improvement of SP medication dispensing are critically important.
This study suggests that use of the SP label with barcode might be expanded to include all other SP drug
categories and should be studied accordingly.
SP (special price)