Pfizer to Implement New Product Bar Coding to Help Reduce Medical Errors In Hospitals and Pharmacies

NEW YORK -- Pfizer Inc said today that it will begin utilizing an innovative new bar code technology on its Hospital Unit Dose products in an effort to help reduce dispensing errors at hospitals and pharmacies nationwide.

The new bar code system, developed in accordance with the new Reduced Space Symbology standards established by the Uniform Code Council, allows for each Pfizer unit dose of product to be identified by its national drug code, expiration date and lot number in both machine and human readable format. This miniaturized bar code, applied to product containers at the time of packaging by Pfizer, utilizes a relatively small amount of label space and can be read with conventionally available bar code readers.

Medical errors, including dispensing errors, account for nearly 100,000 deaths annually in hospitals within the United States according to a 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). In addition, a growing shortage of health care professionals such as registered nurses and pharmacists could exacerbate the potential for errors.

Pfizer said it had recently began printing these bar codes on their Hospital Unit Dose packages, which contain individual drug doses, at one manufacturing site and plans to introduce production at other sites shortly. It is anticipated Pfizer will be imprinting on all Hospital Unit Dose packages produced by the end of 2003. Pfizer is committed to evaluating and implementing these bar codes on other types of packaging as technology permits.

"The application of this new technology to all unit dose packages will ensure that the medicines administered to a patient are exactly what was intended by the patient's doctor, pharmacist and nurse," said Henri R. Manasse, Jr., PhD, ScD., executive vice president and CEO of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, an organization that represents over 30,000 hospital and health system pharmacists. "We commend Pfizer for this important step to improve patient safety."

Although many pharmaceutical manufacturers and healthcare organizations have supported comprehensive bar code labeling, until today, technical and financial impediments have prohibited the development of a standard system. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently working to develop a rule that will require all drug manufacturers to place bar codes on every individual product. Currently, most medicines carry the national drug code (NDC), which identifies the drug by name and dosage, but this is done voluntarily as the FDA does not require the NDC on product labeling.

"We hope our investment in this technology will help establish a bar code standard for the healthcare industry," said Byron Bond, director of trade operations and customer service for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Group. "Through widespread availability, we hope to make it easier for hospitals and pharmacies to invest in the scanner technology necessary to maximize the benefits of bar coded pharmaceutical products."

Pfizer's bar code technology is compatible with current hospital hardware and will allow nurses and pharmacists to use existing hand-held scanners to read a product package. These same scanners can be used to read a patient's identification bracelet when medications are administered in the hospital to ensure the prescribed medicine reaches the appropriate patient.

"It is important that patients receive the right dose of the right drug at the right time throughout the medication use process," said John A. Gans, executive vice president of the American Pharmaceutical Association, the largest professional association of pharmacists in the United States. "Pfizer's new bar code technology has the potential to significantly decrease medication dispensing errors and improve healthcare outcomes."

Source: Pfizer Inc