Should the Federal government mandate Medication Safety technologies?

Implications: Advancing technologies and system design have made it possible to significant improve hospital patient safety and improve clinical outcomes. Technologies can enforce safeguards in a nurse's workflow to administer medications.  The technology forces checks and validates the right drug, right dose, right patient, right time, right route, right reason and correct documentation.  Additionally, advanced IV pump infusion technology can prohibit the incorrect infusion of drugs and prevent adverse effects and sentinel events from otherwise occurring.

Analysis:  Introducing technology and controls in clinical workflow can provide significant safety gates in medication administration.  The annual cost of drug-related morbidity and mortality is nearly $177 billion in the United States. Approximately 7,000 deaths occur each year and medication errors occur in just about 1 of every 5 doses given in hospitals. The FDA states that there is at least one death per day and 1.3 million people are injured each year due to medication errors. (http://www.universityhealthsystem.com/carelink/docs/Prescription-2005-07.pdf)The statistics are alarming despite approved clinical protocols to prevent such mistakes.  The Federal government mandates use of bar codes on all prescription medication... Technology solutions are available that take advantage of this mandate by forcing checks at the point of administration to the patient.  As stated above these systems force checks and validates the right drug, right dose, right patient, right time, right route, right reason and correct documentation.