Positive patient identification
It starts with the wristband that every admitted patient wears secured on a wrist. Without it, how would an unconscious person be identified? Yet often the details are incomplete, names may not be written in full, and there is always the chance that two similar names may be confused. With a unique identifier that links to the patient's admission record, mistaken identity is eliminated, and when it is encoded as a bar code (or in an RFID tag), then it can be read automatically and verified whenever the patient undergoes a treatment or test.
Zebra's desktop printers and wristband media will provide foolproof identity bands that remain with patients throughout their stay. Printed wristbands can contain text, bar codes and even digital images so that all necessary details including blood type, allergies and primary physician are immediately visible.
Nurses and clinicians scan the bar code or RFID tag on the wristband to confirm the patient's details before treatments or tests are carried out.
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Phlebotomy specimen collection: accurate labelling at the bedside avoids mixups Using a handheld terminal and a mobile printer, the phlebotomist scans the patient's wristband and prints an identification label for the blood sample as it is collected at the bedside. This greatly reduces the possibility that samples will be labelled with incorrect information or even collected from the wrong patients. Blood transfusions: automate identity verification to cut risks When the blood bank receives an order and issues blood to the patient, a compatibility label is printed and attached to the blood bag. Before the transfusion is administered, the bar codes on both the patient's wristband and the compatibility label are scanned to confirm that the correct blood is being given to the correct patient. |
Bedside medication delivery: make sure it's the right drug for the right patient When patients are admitted to hospital, the pharmacist must review any existing medication they bring with them and decide whether they can continue to use it or whether new prescriptions must be raised. Printing the label at the patient's bedside using a mobile printer saves the pharmacist a walk back to the pharmacy and also reduces the possibility of the wrong label being applied. Automated medication systems using bar code scanning before delivery dramatically reduce the risk of error. For example, the Veterans' Association (VA) reduced errors by 86.2% during a trial and introduced pointofcare scanning to all 173 of its hospitals as a result. |
