Avoiding mistakes in pharmaceutical and blood bag labelling

Pharmacies across the UK dispense thousands of prescriptions daily, aiming to ensure that patients receive the right medications combined with the correct instructions for their use. Despite the best efforts of those involved in this process, errors at the point of dispensing remain a significant challenge. Research published in the British Medical Journal suggests around 237 million medication errors occur at this stage in England yearly, costing the NHS nearly £98 million and, unfortunately, contributing to upwards of 1,708 deaths annually. While the majority of these errors thankfully don’t result in serious harm, the risks remain – highlighting that labelling mistakes can lead to incorrect dosages, misidentification of medicines and misuse.

Accurate labelling is equally important in blood transfusion services. Keeping a close eye on blood as it moves from donation to transfusion is crucial, in order to ensure it is stored correctly and given to the right patients. An easy failure point within this process is a low-quality label that increases the risk of misidentification and error, compromising patient safety.

Despite being relatively inexpensive compared to other aspects of both these services, high-quality labelling plays a key role in ensuring the safety of dispensing medication and blood transfusion services. For instance, if a label is poor quality, unclear, incorrectly printed, or fails to adhere properly, it can disrupt processes, delay treatments, and ultimately endanger lives.  

Neil Baker, Head of Auto ID for Northern Europe, BIXOLON Europe, explains more about the important role that labelling plays within pharmaceutical labelling and across blood transfusions.

Challenges in pharmaceutical labelling and dispensing

The labelling of pharmaceutical products and medication serves as a crucial point of communication between the dispensing pharmacist and the patient. Each label on a bottle of pills or tablets, for example, displays key details for the product and its use. This can include information relating to dosage, warnings about any potential side effects, and more simple information such as patient names and date of birth. When a label fails to print and display this information, and if it is missing, damaged, or unreadable, the risk of medication errors increases significantly.

Therefore, another key challenge facing many pharmacies is the reliability of low-quality printers. Typically, inexpensive clamshell-style printers are commonly used across high-street pharmacies. These are prone to suffer downtime and they produce poor quality labels – largely due to broken internal components and poor print resolution. When these devices go down, staff are left unable to print prescription labels, leading to delays and increasing pressure on pharmacists who must ensure each medication is dispensed accurately. The result of this downtime is longer patient waiting times, increased workload for IT teams responsible for identifying issues and replacing faulty equipment, and, in the worst cases, an increase in the chances of dispensing errors.

Poor quality labels cause downtime

Inconsistency in labels used and consumables is another major challenge in pharmacy environments. Anecdotally, pharmacies are known to purchase a number of different labels from multiple suppliers in an effort to spread their risk when spending the budget they have on labels. 

However, relying on an array of different consumables and labels leads to variations in print quality, including the adhesive strength of the label, and its durability. For instance, some lower quality labels may quickly become unreadable after printing and sticking to a product: perhaps as a patient puts the product in their bag where it is exposed to scuffing or rubbing against other products. Other labels may fail to stick properly entirely, due to low quality adhesive, running the risk of patients being left without their instructions for use, for example, and needing to contact the pharmacy again to clarify how to use their prescription.

Additionally, it is common for chains of pharmacies to operate different combinations of printers and label materials across their outlets. This makes achieving standardisation and reliability difficult. And with queues piling up in some pharmacies, due to printer downtime, having to reconvey the same message to patients regarding the use of their medication once they leave the pharmacy due to a poor-quality label is an unwanted problem for those working in these environments.

The importance of reliable labelling in blood transfusion services

Alongside this, while pharmaceutical labelling errors can have serious consequences, the stakes are perhaps even higher in blood transfusion services. Because of the high stakes nature of the blood donation process, visibility is key as it is collected and stored, before being given to patients in line with strict safety protocols. Much like the case within pharmacies, labelling also plays a crucial role here in helping to ensure that each bag of blood is accurately labelled and matched to the correct recipient/patient.

One way in which the blood transfusion industry aims to achieve this accuracy is to work towards strict regulatory guidelines, such as ISO 3826. This certification mandates a number of ways in which blood must be stored in order to maintain its safety and quality. As part of this, ensuring that the adhesives used in the labels applied to blood bags do not leach chemicals into the blood itself is another vital area of focus. Failing to prevent this can contaminate it and pose a serious health risk to patients, making it key for suppliers to adhere to ISO standards. 

Temperature resistance is another critical requirement in this process. Blood is stored at tightly controlled temperatures, with red blood cells kept between 2 and 6 degrees Celsius and plasma stored at around -30 degrees Celsius or lower. Labels must remain secured and fully legible under these extreme conditions and as they pass through the supply chain. If a label becomes detached or damaged, it can jeopardise patient safety – or worse result in blood and plasma becoming wasted.

Most people will likely understand the potential challenges associated with managing the storage of blood, with the historic blood contamination scandal in the UK continuing to make headlines into the present. While this was not directly caused by labelling issues, it shone a light on the potential dangers of inadequate quality control within this process, and, of course, the potential consequences for patients/recipients at the end of it. In the present, accurate and compliant labelling is therefore a central part of ensuring the safety of patients in blood transfusion services. It is a high stakes situation and the consequences are potentially fatal. So getting it right for patients should be a key priority for all medical professionals involved in this process.

Investing in robust labelling solutions for safer healthcare

For many professionals in the pharmacies and blood services, the solution to these problems is turning to more reliable, high-quality printers that can stand up to the demands of their industries. In this environment, being able to produce accurate labels that are clear, and resistant to scuffs and temperature differences is crucial for improving patient safety and avoiding the operational bottlenecks that low-quality printers can cause in terms of queues and increased downtime. In these settings, modern advancements in printing technology can make a real difference.

Pharmacies can rely on more robust and reliable label printing technology that reduces the risk of printer failure. When pharmacies deploy high-quality printing solutions, they can reduce errors and prevent dispensing delays caused by frequent downtime and maintenance in lower quality products. What is more, these higher quality printers can also ensure that the labels produced are clear and legible, which is crucial for patient safety.

When it comes to storing blood bags properly, ensuring compliance with ISO 3826 standards remains a key priority. Utilising high-quality printers, labels and adhesives specifically designed for blood bag applications can help to safeguard against contamination risks. As part of this, hospitals and blood banks must ensure that labelling systems are integrated with digital tracking technologies too, to allow for real-time monitoring and to reduce the risk of misidentification and risk to patient safety.

Conclusion

Despite being one of the lowest-cost components in the healthcare supply chain, labels play a vital role in ensuring that medicines and blood products are used safely and effectively. Ensuring the reliability of labelling systems must remain a key priority for pharmacies, hospitals, and the wider blood bank chain too. Investing in high-quality labelling technology and materials can help to reduce errors, improve efficiency, and ultimately save lives.