Healthcare workers care for a variety of patients with special risks and health statuses. Being able to easily differentiate and identify these risks can be the difference in ensuring a patient’s safety and makes fulfilling a patient’s needs easier for healthcare workers. Thousands of healthcare facilities across the country have adopted standardized, color-coded alert wristbands and labels to help quickly identify a patient’s special condition.
Why Color Standardization is Important
The potential for confusion is significant for healthcare workers, especially when handling an urgent situation. Whether a patient is allergic to certain medications or can be resuscitated during a procedure is crucial information for patient safety. Color Coded Wristbands make it easy to identify different patient conditions with just a quick glance.
With doctors and nurses often working in multiple locations, standardizing alert colors is crucial to effective communication. Not knowing which color corresponds with certain conditions could result in serious medical errors. Establishing uniform color-coding ensures staff can properly and effectively care for patients.
Alert Colors & What They Communicate
While many hospitals are working towards standardization of alert colors, unfortunately one color can still communicate different special risks depending on the hospital and state. For example, in Pennsylvania a yellow wristband can mean a patient has been designated as “DNR” (do not resuscitate) or has a restricted extremity, but in other states a yellow wristband typically means that a patient is at high fall risk. (Patient Safety Authority)
With the rise in popularity of travel nurses, it’s more important than ever to drive standardization of color alerts across state lines. Below we list the most common color alert standards, but these can vary based on location.
PDC has all the alert solutions your hospital needs, including Color-Coded Alert Wristbands and Alert Labels. Make it easy for staff to identify patient risks and keep patients safe with our wide range of wristbands, wraps, alert snaps, labels and more.
Source(s): Adventist Health, Institute for Safe Medicine Practices, OSHA.gov, Patient Safety Authority, Wisconsin Hospital Association
