Hospitals Urge FDA to Require Bar Codes on Medical Devices

Hospital groups have appealed to the FDA to take swift action on a February 2004 pledge to investigate and ultimately pursue a regulation requiring the bar coding of medical devices.

Citing the near completion of a February 2004 rule requiring the bar coding of drugs and biologics, seven organizations wrote a letter to FDA acting Commissioner Lester Crawford to inquire about the agency's progress and intentions on the device bar-coding issue. The hospital groups are urging Congress to revisit the device bar-coding issue in the wake of an FDA internal report criticizing the agency's postmarket safety surveillance of medical devices, as well as its oversight of the manufacturers.

"Based on the experience of other industries, bar coding applied to medical devices will streamline the supply chain, inventory control and asset processes in the healthcare sector resulting in significantly reduced costs," said Joe Pleasant, chief information officer of Premier, a national nonprofit hospital alliance spear-heading the effort.