Hospital bar codes not a perfect Rx

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Philadelphia Inquirer, July 1, 2008

Bar codes were long touted as the perfect solution to medication mistakes in hospitals. But bar codes make new problems and aren't the panacea that safety advocates expected, according to a research team at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Bar coding has not yet been proven to reduce medication errors, and often the shortcuts that caregivers develop undermine its effectiveness, the researchers found.

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