Q: Why should we use printed hospital wristbands?
In 2007 the NHS and National Patient Safety Agency in England and Wales announced the results of a survey of over 24,000 reports of patients receiving incorrect care. Incorrect hand-written hospital wristbands were responsible for around 3,000 of these errors.
The resulting Safety Alert that was marked for action of Chief Executives and informed hospitals that they had 2 years to completely stop using hand written style bands and move to printed alternatives. This has resulted in a much safer environment, increased positive patient identification, a reduction in costly litigation and a decrease in bed days.
BRENMOOR supply over 300 hospitals in England and Wales with patient identification products.
Q: Are printable hospital wristbands easy to implement?
Most hospitals already print patient details onto a label of some sort. The wristbands are in essence a long thin label and so it is simple to amend a patient label template to the correct size of a wristband.
Q: Are the wristbands and printers required expensive?
The printers that produce the wristbands are around £250 and the wristbands themselves are around a third more expensive than hand-written wristbands. The benefits they offer far outweigh this slight cost increase. It is also worth mentioning that many IT departments within hospitals may have “spare” thermal printers that would be ideal for this application.
Q: Do we need expensive ribbons or inks to print the patient information?
No ribbon or ink is required to produce the text; the wristband surface turns black inside the printer using heat.
Q: How long will the wristbands last on a patient?
BRENMOOR manufacture wristbands for a wide range of applications. Some are for short term use and will last up to 2 weeks, whilst others are for longer stay patients and will last for many weeks.
Q: What happens if the wristband comes into contact with alcohol or fluids?
BRENMOOR wristbands are fully resistant to water, soaps, alcohol gel and fluids. The print will stay readable and barcodes will scan for many weeks.
Q: Do BRENMOOR manufacture both adults and children wristbands?
Within the range of patient ID products there are wristbands for newborns, children, teenagers and adults. They include both adhesive and clasp fastening solutions.