Another advance in technology include barcode scanning — a relatively new addition in the ED. A patient receives a wristband with a unique code and the scanner captures the code from the patient’s wristband and ties it to any test, lab result or procedure he or she receives during an ED visit, said Pamela Assid, DNP, RN, CNS, CEN, CPEN, NEA-BC, director of emergency services for Sky Ridge Medical Center, in Lone Tree, Colo. When hospitals integrate barcode technology into their facilities, it ends up changing many of their processes — which ultimately changes the way hospitals practice emergency medicine, Assid said. She is a member of the Emergency Nurses Association, headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill, and served as a chairperson on the emergency department operations committee.  A big draw to barcode technology is that hospitals have reported increased patient satisfaction and positive health outcomes, Assid said. And there is huge potential for expanded use of the technology. According to a study from the American Medical Informatics Association, it suggests that the technology can reduce the incidence of manual errors, a common problem that requires additional time to correct mistakes. And with fewer labeling errors, . Quick turnaround time on test results translates into quicker treatment for patients, placement with the right specialist and increased patient satisfaction, she said. In a 2017 report published in the Journal of Patient Safety, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, suggest that barcode technology, referred to as RFID, allowed the surgical team to track surgical tools and sponges since the technology reads barcodes through the skin. Outcome — errors with accuracy rates between 98% to 100%. “All the research tells us, the sooner we can get them in the ER and connected to the right specialist the better,” Assid said. “And the sooner we can get them discharged the more satisfying experience they have in the ER department.” Each time patients provide blood or urine samples, their specimen identification code is connected to the patient ID number, because a nurse scans his or her wristband and then scans the specimen, Assid said. Barcode technology creates a tracking process that helps decrease medical errors because each time a nurse scans a patient’s wrist band, it updates the patient’s electronic medical record — which increases efficiencies and decreases incidence of error.  Scanning technology also can prevent prescription mishaps, such as giving the wrong pill, she said. After scanning the patient and his or her medication, the computer system alerts the nurse if the wrong medication is being administered, or if it’s for the wrong patient, she added.