SPECIAL FOCUS


tion process account for a large percentage of errors. Bar-code technology offers a seam- less, error-free way to ensure blood is being collected and handled with care,” he added. Finally, Sullivan posits that supply chain mismanagement leads to millions of dollars lost annually, and that a 2018 Navigant study (https://www.navigant.com/news/corpo- rate-news/2018/supply-chain-analysis-2018) suggests as much as 17 percent of healthcare expenditures are being wasted. “This could be due to expired inventory, products in recall that are still being used, or overages in stock ordering,” he said. “By proactively imple- menting barcode technology inventory man- agement systems, hospitals are able to more easily optimize the use of their supplies.” Bar coding’s versatility, lower cost to operate, print and mark, application flex- ibility and wide adoption range will “extend its life- time for decades to come,” predicts Alberto Ballestra, Healthcare Industry Market- ing Manager, Datalogic Inc.


Alberto Ballestra


Bar coding represents convenience that generates cost reductions for at least double the philosophical return on investment, ac- cording to Kristen Merrell, Vice President, Marketing, Kem Medical Products Corp. “Rather than the time consuming and la- borious tasks of tracking data by hand or by using spreadsheets, as was common practice prior to bar coding, it is easy to scan an item and set in motion a data-rich process that is capable of providing information regarding arrival and delivery confirmations, location tracking, usage history, productivity and quality assurance as well as regulatory compliance,” Merrell noted. “All of this in- formation further assists as a tool for trend predictions and maintenance and staff scheduling.


“Bar coding is an attractive and reliable


technology because of its simplicity and adaptability,” she continued. “It is relatively inexpensive to implement, as well as easy to maintain. It also provides a platform that can be adapted for expansion and/or integration into other applications. It is an incredibly flex- ible technology that allows for near limitless growth.”


Frank Kilzer, retired Vice President, Materi- al and Facility Resources, St. Alexius Medical Center, Bismarck, ND, agrees wholeheartedly on bar coding’s solid future extending from its foundational past. “It is unlikely that in healthcare the need for ac- curacy, efficiency, security, patient safety, cost control, etc., will ever go away,” Kilzer told HPN. “The ben- efits to using bar codes are well documented and will


Frank Kilzer


always drive a need for ongoing use of this technology. Kilzer should know. He spent his entire 43-year healthcare supply chain career at St. Alexius, where he is regarded as one of the first hospital supply chain executives to adopt and implement bar coding at his facil- ity in 1985. He was inducted into Bellwether League’s Hall of Fame for Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership in 2010. (Editor’s Note: For more on Kilzer’s experience with bar coding, read his sidebar at https://hpnonline.com/21092139.)


Never say never Some may solidly stand behind bar coding’s endurance but their realistic optimism only goes so far. “While we can’t say bar coding will never


be replaced, there’s really nothing on the horizon that has the potential to replace it,” as- sured John Freund, President and CEO, Jump Technologies Inc. “I believe bar coding will remain strong because other options are cost prohibitive. Reimbursement rates on med/surg products are low, which makes the cost to invest in alterna- tive technologies like RFID or scales difficult to jus- tify. The lowest cost way to work with med/surg supplies is to use bar codes, whether you’re doing so in a perpetual inventory or Kan- Ban system.” Jeff Lawrence, Vice President, Business Development, Inventory Optimization Solu- tions, agrees with that assessment. “I’ve lived long enough to know, never


John Freund


say never, so I’ll [say] bar coding most likely won’t fade or be rendered obsolete,” he quipped. “Manufacturers will always look for ways to distinguish themselves from competi- tion, and bar coding that en- ables ease of use will always be a benefit. For providers, it makes sense to consider the efficiencies found in bar coding as they select suppliers. For one, bar coding will help organizations manage through regulations, according to Lawrence.


Jeff Lawrence


“We’ll always have regulations to comply with and as we need to proactively manage lot number, serial number and/or expiration date, bar-code labels will greatly simplify adherence to these requirements,” he added. Lawrence hitches a “psychological compo- nent” to bar coding’s popularity, too. “People have come to believe in bar codes and believe bar coding is helping them be more efficient,” he noted. “So do I, by the way. I talk to people in provider organizations every day who say they have a goal to use bar codes toward greater supply chain efficiency, but they don’t yet know exactly how. Tying together that goal with current technology


and the data that’s available by capturing bar codes is the grail. The more sophisticated the bar-code data set becomes, and the more efficiently we can capture it, the better the results we’ll see in supply chain and beyond.”


Global endorsements abound The patient safety promise and labor ef- ficiencies that bar coding brings to hospitals amounts to a tacit endorsement of its utility, emphasizes Zebra’s Sullivan, who uses the retail experience as proof of concept. “When envisioning the adoption of bar


codes in hospitals, an easy comparison is their ubiquity in retail,” he said. “At this point, bar codes and scanners are a staple of the consumer experience and hard to imagine not being present today. To eliminate their use would be a huge step backwards, eroding significant advancements in technology as well as productivity.”


Another endorsement of bar coding comes from governments, global healthcare orga- nizations and standard-setting groups that are all establishing industry guidelines that promote the utilization of bar code and bar code-like technologies in patient care delivery settings, Sullivan maintained. He also cites two cases in point: The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) has imple- mented a bar-code scan for patient safety initiative and the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) electronic health record meaningful use requirements include bar coding as a core stage two measure. Bar codes are also being used to help combat major societal epidemics, Sullivan continued. “The Drug Supply Chain Security Act is a federal law designed to help with the safety and management of drugs and helps prevent the use of falsified medicine and opioid abuse by enhancing the identifica- tion and traceability of compounded drugs throughout the entire supply chain,” he said. “In addition to drugs, medical device laws have also been implemented to ensure the use of unique identification markers to be able to identify the device through distribution and use and to help prevent patient safety chal- lenges. With the combination of regulations and best practice recommendations, those in the healthcare space can be confident in the future and benefits derived from bar codes.”


No turning back


Jump Tech’s Freund labels bar-code scanning a very simple and mature technology — one that “everyone knows how to use in any in- dustry, as evidenced by the self-checkout lines in most major retailers,” he added. “In the healthcare industry, bar-code scan-


ning has support from all the major touch- points in the supply chain, from the supplier to the hospital,” Freund asserted. “It requires a nominal amount of work to maintain and with the right point-of-use system, it is very


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