Globally, health care systems continue to face challenges related to medical errors. To minimize and completely eliminate human transcription errors experienced during viral load and Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) sample labelling and to ensure completeness of patient demographics with each sample transported to the national testing laboratories; CHS developed and introduced the use of a barcode labelling system – the CHS Sample Barcoding System (CHS-SBS) whereby, patient samples are labelled and transmitted electronically reducing the time taken labelling sample tubes manually.
Sample barcoding is the electronic process of labelling viral load and EID samples. The laboratory personnel receives samples and searches for the patient records on the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system, access the patient details and prints a barcode sticker unique for each patient thus reducing the time taken and errors experienced during manual labelling and arranging samples according to their numbers in their hundreds on a rack.
The system was developed to eliminate human transcription/sample labelling errors and ensure completeness of patient demographics with each and every sample transported to the national testing laboratory. Below is a comparison of the steps followed using the manual labelling and sample barcoding system (before and after the implementation of the sample barcoding system). Through the CHS-SBS the sample labelling process has reduced from five to three simple steps.