About
Bar Coding
The technology of
bar coding is changing every day, making it a continual learning process for
all of us…pharmacy and industry alike.
It's our fervent hope that the additions and enhancements we've made to
the Bar Coding features in MILT further minimize the potential
for medication error in your practice. The different bar code formats are
very particular about the amount of data they can hold and the size at which
they are printed. They are designed this
way to make them as universal and readable as possible
MILT
is only one part of your bar coding solution, and you need to know the
requirements of the other parts before you can make the right configuration
decisions in MILT. Before you choose a bar code, gather the
following information:
· What
to Encode:
o What do the people
who are going to scan your bar codes expect them to hold? (NDC Number?
NDC and Exp Date?)
o What is the format
they expect the data to be in? (11 digit
NDC followed by 4 digit Exp Date?)
o What is the maximum
number of characters?
o What is the minimum
number of characters?
o All numbers or
alpha-numeric?
· Who
will scan and with what scanners:
o Are there many
people and locations that will scan your bar codes?
o Do they all have the
same scanner and software?
o Are the scanners
1-Dimensional or 2-Dimensional?
o Which bar code
formats do they use now? ( HIBC? UPC?)
Based on the
answers to the questions above, you can make a well informed decision on which
of the bar code listed below to use:
|
Bar Code |
Min Char |
Max Char |
Numeric |
Alpha-Numeric |
1D Scanner |
2D Scanner |
|
CodaBar |
1 |
11 |
YES |
no |
YES |
YES |
|
Code 39 |
1 |
11 |
YES |
no |
YES |
YES |
|
Code 3 of 9 |
1 |
11 |
YES |
no |
YES |
YES |
|
USS Code 39 |
1 |
11 |
YES |
no |
YES |
YES |
|
USD-3 |
1 |
11 |
YES |
no |
YES |
YES |
|
Logmars |
1 |
11 |
YES |
no |
YES |
YES |
|
HIBC |
1 |
11 |
YES |
no |
YES |
YES |
|
USS Code 128 |
1 |
11 |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
UCC-128 |
1 |
11 |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
ISBT-128 |
1 |
11 |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
EAN-128 |
1 |
11 |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
EAN-14 |
14 |
14 |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
SSCC-18 |
18 |
18 |
YES |
no |
YES |
YES |
|
SSC-14 |
14 |
14 |
YES |
no |
YES |
YES |
|
UPC-A |
12 |
12 |
YES |
no |
YES |
YES |
|
UPC-E |
8 |
8 |
YES |
no |
YES |
YES |
|
EAN-13 |
13 |
13 |
YES |
no |
YES |
YES |
|
RSS Expanded |
1 |
14* |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
RSS Expanded Stacked |
1 |
20* |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
RSS Limited |
14 |
14 |
YES |
no |
YES |
YES |
|
Data Matrix |
1 |
40* |
YES |
YES |
no |
Required |
|
PDF 417 |
1 |
40* |
|
