How Hospital Pharmacies Can Speed Up Receiving and Prevent Missed Expiries or Recalls with Intelligent Barcode Scanning

Aug 28, 2025 · Geetanjali
  Healthcare

Hospital pharmacies play a critical role in medication safety and operational efficiency. To meet strict regulatory requirements and ensure proper patient care, it becomes critical to accurately track every item, from vials to blister packs. However, managing income stock, recall, and expiry dates has become more complex than ever. Moreover, fragmented workflows and manual processes generate risks and inefficiencies.

This is where intelligent hospital pharmacy barcode scanners step in. Advanced barcode recognition solutions enable hospitals to streamline pharma stock handling, prevent expired medications, and improve overall pharmacy inventory management processes.

The Pain Points in Today’s Hospital Pharmacy Operations

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While things appear to be well-organized and smooth at the forefront, hospital pharmacies are under constant pressure at the back end, from staff struggling with manual tracking to shipments arriving all at once, while also meeting regulatory demands. A single error won’t just pose inefficiencies; it could carry real risks for patients and staff. Below are the biggest pain points that hospital pharmacies face in the process of receiving:

  • Slow Receiving Workflows: Manual entry methods and traditional barcode scanners create room for delays. It takes a lot of time for pharmacists and technicians to scan each item individually and enter data manually. Workflows get further disrupted and delayed with high-volume deliveries.
  • Missed Expiries & Recalls: Using manual logs and spreadsheets for expiry tracking is susceptible to errors. It may create compliance challenges and put patients at risk, as recalled or expired medications may slip through.
  • Duplicate Entries & Errors: Inaccurate data, such as duplicate lot numbers, causes mismatched records and ineffective reconciliation during audits. These errors are costly and time-consuming for pharmacy inventory management teams.

How Dynamsoft Barcode Reader (DBR) Transforms Receiving

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With a lot to manage, pharmacy teams need more than spreadsheets and outdated scanning tools. That is where Dynamsoft Barcode Reader makes the difference. A commercial-grade barcode scanning solution, it acts as a robust assistant that helps prevent errors, automates receiving, and ensures patient safety.

Here are the features of DBR that help transform receiving for pharmacy teams:

  • High-Speed Batch Capture: Unlike traditional scanners, Dynamsoft Barcode Reader for pharmacy uses camera-based technology to capture multiple barcodes in a single pass. This reduces receiving time per tote by 30–40%.
  • GS1 Barcode Parsing for Healthcare: Built-in support for GS1 barcode scanning in healthcare enables the automatic extraction of GTIN, lot/serial numbers, and expiry dates. This means structured, reliable data without manual typing—critical for medications, vaccines, and other barcode-scanned medical supplies.
  • Automated Expiry & Recall Flagging: DBR integrates seamlessly with pharmacy stock control software to automatically flag expired or recalled items upon receipt. Unsafe items never enter circulation.
  • De-Duplication in Batch: DBR prevents duplicate captures, ensuring that every barcode is counted only once. This is especially valuable for DataMatrix barcode scanning in healthcare, where high-density codes are common.
  • Audit-Ready Traceability: Each scan generates a time-stamped log, providing complete traceability for audits and regulatory inspections.

Measuring Success: Key Metrics with DBR

Hospitals require technology that not just seems advanced but also shows real results. Hence, it becomes critical for pharmacy teams to demonstrate improvements in accuracy, speed, and safety.

With Dynamsoft Barcode Reader, this goal becomes achievable, as it helps improve receiving, auditing, and recall management, easing daily workflows while protecting patients. Here is how:

  • First-Pass Read Rate ≥ 99%: DBR is designed to read every barcode on the first try, reducing rescans and potential errors. It works exceptionally well with damaged, curved, wrinkled, or dense labels.

    Example: Dynamsoft Barcode Reader helped Takeda save a considerable amount of time and effort by simultaneously decoding batches of 100 Data Matrix-coded vials in under a minute per box, quickly and accurately, delivering close to 100% accuracy.

  • 30–40% Faster Receiving: DBR’s camera-based batch scanning reduces receiving time by 30–40%, allowing pharmacy staff process an entire tote in seconds rather than minutes. This speeds stock availability and frees technicians for clinical duties. Example: Takeda was able to cut scan time down by 75%, increase accuracy, and free up team resources.
  • 2× More Exceptions Caught: DBR automatically flags duplicate, expired, or recalled items at the point of receipt, helping pharmacies identify issues much earlier than through manual checks. This faster, smarter scanning ensures the safety of medications and maintains accurate inventory Example: Dynamsoft Barcode Reader reports a 20% increase in speed and recognition accuracy for dense QR codes, which helps ensure exceptions are reliably flagged, even in high-volume situations.

The Impact on Pharmacy Teams

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The integration of Dynamsoft Barcode Reader impacts every level of the pharmacy, from executives involved in strategic decisions to technicians handling daily deliveries. As a result, a more efficient and safer pharmacy.

Here’s how different teams benefit from Dynamsoft Barcode Reader in their day-to-day work:

  • Pharmacists & Techs: With DBR, pharmacists get more time for patient care, as they spend less time scanning and encounter fewer errors.
  • Materials Management: DBR helps achieve reliable data, which further helps improve ordering, stock rotation, and pharmacy inventory management.
  • Hospital Leadership: Integrating DBR leads to reduced compliance risks, enhanced safety, and measurable efficiency gains.

Take the Next Step

Hospital pharmacies cannot afford to rely on slow, error-prone processes. By adopting intelligent barcode scanning solutions, such as Dynamsoft Barcode Reader, for medical supplies, they can speed up workflows, improve pharmacy inventory management, and protect patients.

Try barcode scanner online demo or download 30-day trial to see how DBR can transform your receiving process.