Enhancing Children's Safety by Barcoding Implementation at Breast Milk Feeding.

When newborns remain hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit, they are often unable to feed themselves and receive human milk through enteral nutrition devices such as orogastric or nasogastric probes. Therefore, the Nursing staff is responsible for the fractionation, storage and administration of human milk. Breast milk has a great biological complexity being the optimal food for the baby to provide all the nutrients needed. At the same time, it is a bodily fluid that carries the risk of disease transmission if not administered properly. Patient safety should be a priority in healthcare, and health information technologies could be used to avoid preventable adverse events. Barcoding technology has the ability to accurately verify patient identity and prescription accuracy before milk administration. This paper describes the steps followed to implement breast milk barcoding technology in an academic tertiary hospital.