Application areas for patient wristbands

Patient wristbands are used to identify or check the identity of a patient before each treatment during a hospital stay to prevent the risk of errors and their consequences. Risk areas include: surgery, dispensing of medicine, blood and blood product transfusions, transfer between wards, etc.

Identification aids are greatly appreciated in the hospital day-to-day. However, a patient wristband cannot replace direct communication.   It is instead an additional safety net, when established identification methods, such as asking the patient, fail.   Patients that cannot identify themselves to staff, or at least not with legal certainty, and should therefore wear wristband throughout their hospital stay, include: infants, children, critically injured or intensive care patients and patients with dementia.

Additionally, patients are generally not able to accurately confirm their identity shortly prior to or during surgery. Identification bracelets also assist patients from non-national speaking backgrounds, as they do not have to verbally confirm their identity. However, only applying the patient wristband to one group of people can unintentionally create the impression that differences are made in medical treatment. Therefore, issuing wristbands to all in-patients is recommended.

How can I generate a patient wristband?

Patient wristbands are printed centrally or at various locations on conventional thermal transfer printers. A special color ribbon, which ensures a durable print, is used in the transfer process. The identification bracelets are then printed directly from the hospital information system (HIS). The print data is saved in the HIS in a form that corresponds to the wristband type layout.

The information can include: Surname, given name, optionally, form of address Date of birth Gender Case number (also known as in-take number) Date of intake Barcode (coded according to the case number)   Further information can include: Hospital logo  2D barcodes (Datamatix, PDF417) Emergency details such as code or optical character Ward's telephone number

For further information or if you have a request, please [contact] us.

We’re happy to help!