AmerisourceBergen Corporation, one of the largest pharmaceutical services companies in the US, said it has the broadest array of solutions to help pharmaceutical manufacturers and hospitals respond to the Food and Drug Administration's new barcode regulations. The recently announced regulations require, within the next two years, supermarket-like barcodes on most pharmaceuticals and blood products used in hospitals.

"We are pleased that the FDA has taken this important step towards significantly improving patient medication safety," said Kurt Hilzinger, president and chief operating officer of AmerisourceBergen. "We are committed to utilizing our broad array of scalable and fully integrated barcode-enabled products and services to help both manufacturers and healthcare providers comply with the new rule and improve the quality of patient care delivered in America."

AmerisourceBergen is a leader in packaging pharmaceuticals directly for manufacturers, and also repackaging products into unit dose formats for providers, using barcodes at every step of the process to enhance product tracking capabilities. "With our experience in fulfilling barcoded packaging needs for both manufacturers and end users, we believe AmerisourceBergen is uniquely positioned to help our manufacturer customers comply with the FDA's new rule and enhance our provider customers' patient safety efforts," said Ed Hancock, president, AmerisourceBergen Packaging Group.

In order to take advantage of the full potential of barcoded pharmaceuticals, hospitals need the best barcode-enabled technology available to track medications from the moment they arrive at the loading dock to the moment they are administered to the patient. "AmerisourceBergen offers customers an open architecture approach to improving patient safety. Using both a customer's existing technology investments as well as our own proprietary technology, we believe we can offer a uniquely comprehensive and cost effective solution that measurably improves patient safety," said Rusty Lewis, President, AmerisourceBergen Technology Group.

Drawing from the strengths of its own AutoMed pharmacy automation technology, MedSelect barcode-enabled cabinet storage solutions, and Bridge Medical bedside scanning capabilities, AmerisourceBergen uses its Choice Systems integrators to seamlessly create a customer-centered patient safety solution. AutoMed's automation technology streamlines pharmacy operations by improving inventory management and automating the dispensing process. AutoMed systems are used today to package and barcode pharmaceuticals in unit dose format to enhance tracking and reduce manual picking, thereby reducing the potential for errors. MedSelect cabinets store pharmaceutical and medical products by barcode and track cabinet inventory, usage by patient, usage by provider, and other critical data. Bridge Medical's barcode point-of-care verification system automates the "Five Rights" checking process, ensuring that the right patient is receiving the right drug at the right time in the right dose via the right route.

AmerisourceBergen's technology and expertise combine to offer our customers the most flexible, most comprehensive approach to using barcode technology to improve patient safety in the industry.