BD Releases New Version of BD.id™ Patient Identification System for Specimen Management

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE:BDX), a global medical technology company and leader in patient and healthcare worker safety-engineered devices and technologies, announced the release of version 6.0 of its BD.id™ Patient Identification System for specimen management. The BD.id System improves hospital operational efficiency and enhances patient safety by reducing the potential for medical errors during the specimen management process.

The latest release of the BD.id System pairs proven functionality with several new product improvements, including embedded analytics with enhanced reporting capabilities. Designed with hospital management in mind, the BD.id System easily generates error prevention logs, materials management data and phlebotomy statistics. The reports are comprehensive enough to produce meaningful trend analyses, yet specific enough to pinpoint inappropriate container use, system workarounds and staff retraining needs. This specificity can reduce the human and institutional costs associated with medical mistakes by helping to eliminate needless and expensive blood redraws, inappropriate prescriptions and even unnecessary surgeries.

“The BD.id System provides floor supervisors, nurse managers and chief nursing officers with real-time feedback on the specimen management process, offering critical information for effective operational decisions,” says Stephen Sichak, WW President, Preanalytical Systems for BD.

In addition to multiple hardware upgrades, including Symbol 8800 series wireless compatible handheld devices and Zebra Technologies wireless compatible printers, the BD.id software is now based on the Windows® Mobile operating system. Its enhanced HL7 bi-directional interface enables better exchange of information between the laboratory information system and the BD.id System software. The first system to integrate bar-coding technology with proven specimen collection process standards, the BD.id System helps ensure that specimens are collected from the right patient at the right time, placed into the right specimen container, subjected to the right tests and that test results are linked back to the right patient.

The BD.id System incorporates BD’s process improvement expertise, based upon 107 years of healthcare experience. The BD approach to reducing errors and increasing operational efficiencies within healthcare facilities combines organizational principles taken from Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma Quality Engineering with simple-to-use technology. BD has drawn on its experience in manufacturing and its knowledge of the specimen collection process across all functions within a healthcare facility to create a system that truly benefits both patients and healthcare professionals.

“BD’s own commitment to process improvement underlies the design of the BD.id System, resulting in a tool that facilitates system-wide error reduction in hospitals,” says Edward J. Ludwig, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of BD. The BD.id System also benefits from the company’s 20-plus years of expertise in seamlessly integrating medical software and hardware solutions to deliver innovative diagnostic instrumentation.

How the BD.id System Works

Unlike other patient identification systems for specimen management, the BD.id System not only matches patients to tests, it also matches tests to the required specimen containers to help ensure tests can be completed properly.

Once a specimen collection order is entered into a hospital’s laboratory information system, it is downloaded to the BD.id server where sophisticated BD.id software sorts the collection information by patient, priority and patient location to minimize the potential for misidentification. The specimen collection order is transmitted to a handheld computer terminal that contains a bar-code scanner. The healthcare professional scans his or her identification badge to access patient information. The professional then scans the patient’s bar-coded wristband to identify the patient. If there is not an existing collection order for the patient in the system, an alarm will alert the healthcare professional—thereby averting an unnecessary needlestick or procedure—and the event will be recorded as a “near miss.” When a collection order does exist for the identified patient, the handheld device displays ordered tests arranged by priority, draw order and time and identifies the appropriate specimen container.

Once the healthcare professional scans the container in which the specimen has been collected and confirms that the test and container are an appropriate match, a portable printer prints a label at the bedside that identifies the healthcare professional who collected the sample, as well as the patient, the date and time of the collection and the test ordered. This process helps ensure that a quality specimen is drawn from the right patient into the right container and that the label is applied at the bedside. In addition, a unique label alignment feature on the BD Vacutainer® Brand blood collection tube ensures that the label will be applied correctly, eliminating costs and delays that result from improperly applied labels.

About BD

BD is a medical technology company that serves healthcare institutions, life science researchers, clinical laboratories, industry and the general public. BD manufactures and sells a broad range of medical supplies, devices, laboratory equipment and diagnostic products. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2004, BD reported total revenues of $4.935 billion.

http://www.bd.com/