Medical Barcode Duplicators: Track & Trace, Lab Testing, and More

Controlling the chain of custody.

Every day around the globe, private lab testing companies, hospitals, university labs, charities, county and state health departments and pharmacies all conduct medical tests at high volumes. And when performing a medical test such as drawing blood or administering a nasal swab, labeling accuracy is critical.

In the course of the medical testing activities, the provider needs to guarantee the accuracy of the sampling. As with all field-collected samples, you can run into issues in this process, including incorrect label placement.

Oftentimes medical test specimen labels are placed in such a manner that they are unable to be properly read by the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) machine.

Some labels from the field come in damaged and need to be replaced. Some labs put positive tests in a freezer for storage, and unfortunately the labels from the field will not hold up to the freezer.

But by creating a duplicate barcode for each sample, we can ensure that the test tube and the patient's records are never mixed up, and that the LIMS machine scans are accurate.

A barcode duplicator allows you to quickly and easily scan and print additional labels for a variety of healthcare applications --- no computer required.

What’s at Stake?

The biggest consequence of faulty labeling is that test tubes get mixed up and faulty results are reported. Or test tubes are lost altogether. Switching to a proper barcode duplication system in medical testing has been shown to reduce avoidable labeling mistakes by a substantial margin.

Lab Managers and Lab Directors at these organizations are often tasked with buying duplicators and labels that will stand up to an outside environment and a freezer. We highly recommend using Zebra desktop or mobile printers along with the DS2208 2D scanner and specialty labels.

The ability to track all the test results is an absolute impossible task without the proper solutions. We are providing one piece of the solution.

Symbology provides solutions that allow our customers to track and trace any product, including testing kits and blood samples, that are serialized or managed with lot control. In the case of medical testing, a serial number is assigned to each person who gets tested.

Key Features & Benefits

No computer required
No network connection required
Ideal for field operation
No more double entry

Real-World Examples

See how our medical & lab testing clients are deploying our solutions:

Blood Center, Washington

Bloodworks Northwest, based in Washington state, collects about 900 units of blood per day (300,000 per year) via eleven donor centers and 19 mobile units from Vancouver to Bellingham. They need to carefully track these collections, but their manual system left too much room for error. Each month about 32 units were incorrectly marked, which meant the lab had to run tests to properly verify each one. The extra step delayed the processing and required additional staff time. They turned to Symbology Enterprises for a better system.

The Zebra LP 2824 Plus Barcode Label printer along with our barcode duplicator was the perfect solution. They soon went from 32 preventable errors a month to less than one.

Forensic Toxicology Lab, Maryland

"At our high-volume drug testing laboratory, our specimen receiving area has struggled with hand-written notes and other issues related to sample accessioning. These issues included mis-annotation for processing split samples, an inability to reproduce torn and ripped barcode labels, and labeling and referencing samples in the documentation that supports our quality management system."

"Thanks to Symbology and their barcode duplicating solutions, our team can now seamlessly resolve all of the aforementioned issues. The implementation of their products has reduced errors, cut-down on processing time, and has improved productivity. Our team is grateful to Symbology, and the flexibility that they showed to modify and adapt our request, so that it perfectly matched the needs of our organization.”

Jacobi Medical Center, New York

"We are using Symbology's Barcode Solutions to label nasal swabs placed in secondary tubes to be run on the Roche Cobas 6800 for PCR testing. The duplicator works conveniently in a laminar flow hood for labeling secondary tubes for PCR testing including for high-volume pandemic specimen processing.”

Louisiana State University Shreveport, Louisiana

“Symbology’s barcode duplicator reduced the rejection rate of barcodes placed on field samples from 5 to 6% to less than 1%.”

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For use in blood centers and other medical specimen testing settings, we highly recommend using Zebra desktop or mobile printers along with the DS2208 2D scanner and specialty labels.

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Using the Right Technology: Printers, Scanners & Specialty Labels

Thinking of switching to a more modern track and trace approach? We may have the medical track and trace solution you’ve been looking for. Use the link below to talk to a track and trace hardware specialist today about your medical barcoding and labeling needs. We are delivering duplicators within 5 days of delivery.

Medical Device Labeling

New legislation has tightened rules on track and trace for medical devices. All medical devices must now be equipped with a Unique device identifier (UDI label). This way, defective equipment can be removed from factories, warehouses, and hospitals without impacting patient care. The UDI barcodes must be scannable at all times and the data must be captured easily by workers. Some applications might require having multiple barcodes on a single item.

Track & Trace Software

For Track & Trace software, there are several different ERP software solutions available.

A cloud-based inventory management solution, like Ascent ERP, will provide the batch and lot IDs that can be tracked across your supply chain (processing, dispatch, shipping, receiving, etc.). Track lots, serial numbers, date and time stamps, and more.

Having all the right hardware with scanning and label printing technology won’t matter if the data isn’t coming in from a centralized source. It all starts with the software.

ERP Software Costs

Most ERP systems are priced on a per user per month basis. Initial implementation can range from around $20,000 to $50,000. Have complete visibility of your supply chain.

To learn more and speak to the barcoding experts, call 888-484-4424.

Medical Barcode Duplicators