Realizing the worldwide need for improved medication safety practices, Codonics innovated the Safe Label System (SLS). Modern technology for the operating room, SLS was designed to help prevent perioperative medication errors (MEs) and/or adverse drug events (ADEs) during surgical procedures by incorporating barcode technology to remove the element of human error. With that mission, we are focused on helping hospitals improve patient safety by ensuring prepared medications are properly labeled as required by The Joint Commission. Adding value anywhere medication preparation demands increased safety, the need for SLS expands beyond the operating room, including the ICU, PICU, patient floors, nurse medication prep stations and pharmacy. As of September 2024, SLS has over 16,000 installations in more than 1,000 hospitals spanning 19 countries.

Ushering in an unparalleled level of safety, SLS acts as a “second set of eyes” in some of the most fast-paced areas of the hospital. It has been reported that medication errors cause at least one death every day and injure approximately 1.3 million people annually in the U.S. alone. Medication labeling errors make up over 60% of the errors that occur in the operating room – but they are preventable. Codonics is focused on bringing these preventable errors to zero. Codonics Safe Label System (SLS) is used in more than 16,000 operating rooms and is installed in over 1,000 of the world’s leading hospitals. SLS has been utilized in over 70 million procedures and over 281 million drug preparations, helping to prevent more than 2.1 million medication errors*.

Even in countries where specific standards or governmental oversight is yet to exist, our focus on safety has driven us to develop and implement a ‘best-practice’ approach in user-friendly systems to provide improved safety solutions. By communicating and working with Ministry of Health (MOH) agencies all over the world, Codonics is augmenting awareness of problems, introducing best practices and applicable standards, and providing solutions to “unrecognized” needs. Our continued focus and commitment to the ongoing Patient Safety Movement Foundation’s initiatives for zero preventable patient deaths caused by medication errors by the year 2020 includes working with organizations like Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF), and aligning with the objectives set forth by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Our collaborative relationship with the SIMS Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital, part of Partners HealthCare, led us to focus on technology like SLS. Today we are obsessed over safety and effectiveness and continue to be driven to accept nothing less.

As we move forward, we are actively helping to “close the loop” in the operating room bringing disparate technologies together with SLS at the center, central to improving safety, quality, workflow efficiency and maximizing revenue. Through integration with anesthesia dispensing carts, anesthesia information management systems (AIMS) and electronic health records (EHR) like Epic, we’re utilizing the barcode on SLS prepared medications to improve inventory control, charge capture and billing, reduce stock outs, and help with 340B initiatives, delivering an ROI to the operating room in addition to safety improvements and compliance requirements.

Codonics has been highly recognized for product innovation and exporting excellence with these prestigious honors and awards: Medical Design Excellence Award (MDEA) for product innovation, Frost & Sullivan for Medication Management Customer Value Leadership Best Practices Award, Healthcare Heroes Award for Advancements in Healthcare, NorTech Innovation Award for Improving Safety and Accuracy of Medication Management, Stevie’s Export Excellence, the Governor’s E-Award, and by the White House with the President’s E-Award, the highest honor a company can receive for exporting excellence.

Codonics has always looked for what has yet to come, believing that consistent dedication to advancing healthcare could transcend other ordinary solutions and conventional boundaries. Our customers can depend on Codonics brand to operate reliably day in and day out, recording thousands of CDs and DVDs, printing hundreds of films every hour, and improving patient care by increasing medication safety and compliancy anywhere in the hospital. Our commitment to provide innovative products and market-leading solutions is changing the face of healthcare.

_{*Based on Merry AF, Peck DJ. Anesthetists, Errors in Drug Administration and the Law. N Z Med J. 1995; 24:185-187.}