EAN India is on an aggressive drive to educate the healthcare sector to implement EAN UCC (uniform code council) standards, which insists on use of bar codes to minimize errors in patient care. The company has initiated a dialogue with healthcare establishments on the criticality of EAN standards. In their discussions with some leading hospital management officials, the company has ascertained that more than cost of implementation it is the mindset which is a major deterrent to adopt EAN standards.

The company is a joint initiative of the Government of India and Indian industry to administer EAN.UCC system of bar coding to trade and industry.

When efforts are on to promote India as an healthcare destination, the hospital systems in the country must be integrated with international medical centers on a war footing to enable electronic transfer of patient records. By standardizing the hospital supply chain, Indian hospitals can establish new benchmarks in patient care, Ravi Mathur, CEO, EAN India, told pharmabiz.com

The cost of implementing EAN standards is estimated approximately at Rs. 10,000 as all that healthcare providers need to invest are scanners, said Mathur.

World wide EAN standards are extensively used in identification and dispensing of drugs, medical consumables, blood banks, diagnostic labs and bio-medical waste in the healthcare sector. These standards enable efficiency in hospital business processes, stock management in medical supplies including blood products and allow faster automated patient billing/patient identification.

EAN India is in the process of chalking out strategies to work with hospitals, pharmacies and blood banks after it has been successful in helping the pharmaceutical sector to use bar codes. Around 300 pharmaceuticals companies in the country have now started using bar codes only for the export market as it is mandatory in international trade. However, EAN is now to ensure that the pharma sector use bar in the domestic trade too.

For the healthcare sector, EAN standards facilitate stock management of hospital supplies, patient identification, blood bags identification, information e-exchange between hospitals, pharmacies and doctors. Hospitals in Europe use EAN standards to monitor dosage for patients, minimize incidence of medication errors and avoidable deaths, he said.

Another element of EAN standards is the supply chain standardization as key facts like stock level and date of expiry of products can be ciphered into a barcode. It also allows efficient stock management, saves cost and also reduces the possibility of spurious drugs entering the market, as either raw materials and the source of sale contact can be traceable. The implementation of bar codes will help Waste Management, as segregation and disposal of hazardous waste can be efficiently handled.