Zebra Technologies International, LLC - Zebra Technologies Supports the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Requirement for Bar Codes on Drugs and Blood Bags to Help Reduce Medical Errors and Save Lives

Zebra Technologies International, LLC

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Zebra Technologies Supports the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Requirement for Bar Codes on Drugs and Blood Bags to Help Reduce Medical Errors and Save Lives
Zebra Technologies (Nasdaq: ZBRA), a Global Leader in Bar Code and RFID Technology, Offers Proven Solutions to Help Drug Manufac

February 27, 2004
VERNON HILLS, Ill., Feb. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- On February 25, 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a final ruling requiring bar codes on the labels of human drugs and biological products such as blood and blood components. This final rule applies to most drug manufacturers, repackers, relabelers, private label distributors, and blood establishments, and is designed to help reduce medical errors in the hospital environment and ultimately save lives. At the same time, the ruling will help the healthcare industry to fully leverage and benefit from bar code technology much as the retail and consumer packaged good industries have done for years. With medication related errors alone accounting for up to 7,000 deaths in the U.S. per year (Source: Institute of Medicine [IOM]), the FDA is expecting this new bar code ruling to: -- Prevent nearly 500,000 adverse events and transfusion errors over 20 years. -- Save over $93 billion in 20 years by reducing: healthcare costs; patient pain and suffering; and lost work time due to adverse events. The FDA stated that this rule will require certain new medications to have bar codes within 60 days of their approval. Also, most previously approved medicines and all blood and blood products will have to comply within two years. Zebra Technologies - Bar Coding to Help Save Lives and Reduce Costs In full support of the FDA's requirement for companies to adopt bar coding on labels of human drugs and biological products, Zebra Technologies (Nasdaq: ZBRA) has served as an advisor to the FDA on bar coding in the healthcare environment, and works with leading healthcare companies to leverage this technology. As a supplier to 90 percent of the Fortune 500 companies, Zebra has a strong heritage in helping many industries understand and adopt bar code technology. The company's bar code solutions will help organizations check medications and doses quickly to ensure patients get the correct drugs at the correct dosage at the correct time. Healthcare workers will use bar code systems to read a patient's ID wristband and match the information contained in the wristband to the intended medication. If the healthcare worker has made a mistake in the dosage amount, or type of medication, then an alarm will sound. Also, bar coding on labels used for identifying blood and blood components for transfusions will help increase patient safety and accuracy. The ability to double-check blood, blood components and medication at the point of administration will substantially increase patient safety and reduce costs. Zebra's life sciences market expert, Debbie Murphy, can provide a complete background on this issue and on the strategies that companies can adopt to improve patient safety. To schedule a press interview with Murphy, or for more information, please contact: Suzette Sexton, Outlook Marketing Services, 847-509-3099, ext. 206 or visit: http://www.lifesciences.zebra.com/ For a copy of the recent FDA report, please visit: http://www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/counterfeit/report02_04.html ABOUT ZEBRA Zebra Technologies (Nasdaq: ZBRA) delivers innovative and reliable on- demand printing solutions for business improvement and security applications in 100 countries around the world. More than 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies use Zebra(R)-brand printers. A broad range of applications benefit from Zebra-brand thermal bar code, "smart" label, card, and receipt printers, resulting in enhanced security, increased productivity, improved quality, lower costs, and better customer service. The company has sold more than 3 million printers, including RFID printer/encoders and wireless mobile solutions, and also offers software, connectivity solutions, and printing supplies. Information about Zebra bar code products can be found at www.zebra.com . The company's Web site for thermal printing supplies is www.zipzebra.com .