>>>that could have been done with targeted legislation
>
>woulda, coulda, shoulda.
>
>That's exactly the point. All of this could have been done voluntarily or with targeted legislation decades ago, but it wasn't.
>
>
>I did a lot of work on pharma systems about 10 years ago. That sector did a pretty good job - far from perfect but infinitely better than the MD's and hospitals- with the FDA with establishing bar code standards, EDI standards, deployment history, etc.
>No legislation was necessary. If you want to sell in that market, you have to meet the standards, period.
>A lot of that came from the manufacturers, who had a lot to gain from improved trace ability for recalls, etc,
>
>I was thinking about the pharma systems I worked on while watching the nurses scan my wristband and then the meds they were giving me. Every med, even in some cases a single capsule, is bar coded now.

That was already the case when I had my appendix out in 2009 in the hospital I stayed at.