Hospital to use barcodes to confirm medications

Whitman Hospital is firing up to use a barcode verification system in which medications will be scanned and then matched to a barcode on a patient’s wristband.

All eighteen new scanners, compatible with the hospital’s computers, will be up and running Feb. 9 for the 25 in-patient rooms in the hospital.

The scanner is very similar to the kind used in grocery stores.

The new system is a hospital-wide effort to accurately match patients to their medication, said Denise Fowler, chief clinical officer for the hospital.

“It’s that final defense in making sure we don’t give the patient the wrong medi...