Auto Identification

Zebra's proven printer and media solutions are being used in hospitals to improve safety, comfort and efficiency at every stage of a patient's journey through the hospital. Bar codes and, more recently, RFID (radio frequency identification) are being used to help reduce the incidence of mistakes in identification as well as to speed up hospital processes from admissions to outpatients, from the pharmacy to the wards.

Patient identification, using Zebra wristband media and printers, provides a critical first step in many patient safety improvement initiatives. Incorporating a bar code or an RFID tag as well as text provides a vital extra safeguard against mistaken identity. Using printed rather than handwritten wristbands also ensures that all required data is present. Nothing is left to chance.

Medical records that carry a printed label incorporating a bar code are a more reliable way to ensure that each patient's record can be uniquely identified and tracked. In a busy outpatients' department, it is not unusual for there to be two patients attending who have similar names. Cross­ checking a bar code ensures that records do not get put into the wrong folder and it is a quicker and more accurate check than one done purely visually.

Laboratory specimens need to be accurately identified. Scanning the bar code on the patient's record, or the wristband if on the ward, ensures that the full and correct data can be transferred to the specimen label automatically. Zebra printers are a convenient way of producing the labels at any location in the hospital.

Medication administration can be both time­ consuming and risky. With a mobile printer, the pharmacist can label a patient's personal medication on the nursing floor, which saves walking time back to the pharmacy. The hospital pharmacy can also print unit­of­use bar code labels to provide a full audit trail.

Blood transfusions are an area of extreme risk, where inaccurate identification can lead to potentially fatal errors. Blood bags are routinely bar­coded with their type, but when the bags are issued from the blood bank, it is important that the right blood gets to the right patient. Adding a label with the intended patient's details, including their bar­coded ID, enables additional safety checks to be made automatically before the blood is given.