The healthcare industry has unique safety requirements for the labeling of medical products, such as devices, that are not typically found in commercial retail settings. HIBCC was provided our initial mandate in 1983: Develop a uniform bar code labeling standard for products shipped to hospitals.
Bar Codes and Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC)
This idea represented a big change for the industry. By agreeing to place a consistent pattern of computer-readable bar codes on their products, manufacturers would provide a control mechanism that would yield enormous benefits to both their hospital customers and distributors.
The alphanumeric Health Industry Bar Code (HIBC) Standards that we created were specifically designed to address the more stringent safety and security considerations of the healthcare setting. As such, HIBC data formats are consistent, flexible, globally compatible and industry supported.
Our standards are designed with health care in mind. The first part of the standard, the HIBC Supplier Labeling Standard (SLS), covers the formats used by suppliers of products. The second part, the HIBC Provider Standard, covers the formats used for internal labeling by health care providers themselves.
UDI – Leveraging Existing Standards
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in their recent rule for Unique Device Identifiers (UDI) (a system to mark and identify medical devices within the healthcare supply chain), addressed the importance of leveraging existing standards. You can learn more about the FDA UDI rule here.
Need a Bar Code? First Apply for an LIC
HIBCC was formed to administer the HIBC standard and issue Labeler Identification Codes (LIC); an LIC identifies individual manufacturers and is included within each bar code that manufacturer creates.
