North York General Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is a 434-bed healthcare facility with
approximately 2200 medications listed on its hospital formulary. In the later part of 2005, the
hospital began research to develop a bar coding strategy to reduce potential medication
errors at the point of care, and to streamline their pharmacy operation processes. The outcome
of research performed by North York General Hospital, Pharmacy Services has resulted in its
endorsement of GS1 standards for its bar coding strategy and leveraging their established
criteria of using “unique, static data” that defines the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) –
helping to move the healthcare sector to an increasingly e-driven global supply chain.