[1] In the early 2000s, published reports began to illustrate high rates of medical error (adverse events) and the increasing costs of healthcare.
A study conducted in 2010, found that barcode usage prevented about 90 000 serious medical errors each year and reduced mortality rate by 20%.
Healthcare professionals use specimen testing (blood, urine, or other) to help diagnose disease, assess health, and monitor medication level.
More than 160 000 adverse medical events per year have been suspected in the United States because of misidentification of patient or laboratory specimen.
[12] Within medical laboratories, incorporating barcoding systems has shown to be effective in reducing ID errors.
According to the FDA, a minimum of four information pieces are required for the label, which includes the following:[16] Barcodes may be used to identify the instruments and supplies in kits for surgical procedures.
[18] Barcode technology can help prevent medical errors by making accurate and reliable information readily available at the point-of-care.
Looking at barcoding technology in healthcare from a clinical professional standpoint The stated concerns of 2003, as e.g.[citation needed] All concerns may be traced to inadequate methods or insufficient tools with a non covered demand for support by modern information technologies.
However, growing attention on radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems are expected to be the future competitor for barcoding.
[24] In this regard, barcoding (1-D and 2-D) will continue to have advantages over RFID (specifically passive RFID) for the following two reasons:[25] Barcoding technology in healthcare will eventually begin to shift over to the use of 2-D symbologies to accommodate size restrictions and the growing need for large amounts of data.