Color Coded Wristbands Standardization
More than half of the state hospital associations in the U.S. have standardized color coded alerts to efficiently and effectively communicate special patient conditions and improve patient safety.
Color coded wristband alert standardization gained national attention in 2005 as the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority issued a patient safety advisory regarding an almost fatal incident in a Pennsylvania hospital. The advisory brought attention to a patient nearly dying due to confusion caused by the color alert of the wristband. Lack of consistency in color coding of patient alerts has presented problems when patients are transferred among facilities or cared for by clinicians who work at multiple hospitals.
Later, in September 2008, the AHA issued a Quality Advisory encouraging hospitals that are already using color coded alert wristbands to adopt standard colors for the three most common condition alerts being red for Allergy Alert, yellow for Fall Risk, and Purple for Do Not Resuscitate. The advisory cited standardization as a common sense approach to reduce confusion among color coding variations at different hospitals.
PDC offers a comprehensive line of alert products, including color coded wristbands, snaps and wristband companion labels. To find out more about our wristbands and ID products that meet the color coded alert standardization guidelines in your state, please click on the map below
|
