The Barcode – Beyond the Business Implications for the Retail Pharmacy

Abstract

The barcode succeeded to change forever the way of doing business all around the world. EAN•UCC applications in the healthcare industry are numerous and cover whole value chains from the "final" customers. The penetration of barcode technologies in the healthcare industry remains not widely spread, although 44 countries in the world including USA, Japan, and most European Union countries have adopted the EAN•UCC system for identifying, tracking and tracing medical products. Besides its huge administrative benefits, the barcode together with the electronic transmitted prescription and appropriate software can play a key role in the accomplishment of the famous “Five Rights” of a safe medication administration process: Right-Patient, Right-Medication, Right-Time, Right-Dose and Right-Route. The implement of such a system would push to zero the errors of drug dispensation in the retail pharmacy, but has to wait until ETP will be fully operational.