Bar-coded medication administration (BCMA) systems require that the nurse who administers the medication at the bedside should scan the patient's identification bracelet and the unit dose of the medication being administered. The system alerts the nurse to any mismatch of patient identity or of the name, dose, or route of administration of the medication. BCMA reduces medication errors by ensuring the five ‘rights’ of medication administration: the right patient, drug, dose, route, and time. BCMA systems reportedly produce 54–87% reductions in errors during administration of medications [25]. In a London teaching hospital, implementation of a ‘closed-loop’ system including CPOE and BCMA reduced prescribing and medication administration errors [26]. BCMA is reviewed in more detail elsewhere in this special issue [27].