Colored Wristband Standardization

Ohio Patient Safety Institute

2007

Why should we look at standardizing wrist band colors?

• Pennsylvania Near Miss

• Mini survey

• Ohio regulatory requirement for DNR

• Practitioners practice at multiple surgical/ procedural settings

• Increased use of “community” bands

Ohio Emergency Code Color Schema

Code Red Fire Code Yellow Disaster

Code Adam Infant/Child Abduction

Code Brown Missing Adult Patient

Code Orange Hazardous Material Spill

Code Violet Violent Patient/ Combative

Code Blue Adult Medical Emergency

Code Pink Child Medical Emergency

Code Gray Severe Weather

Code Silver Weapon/ Hostage Situation

Code Black Bomb/Bomb Threat

Crosswalk of color use

  Red Green Blue Pink Orange Yellow White Purple Clear8 Striped Brown Cranberry

Allergies                        

Blood                        

DNR                        

Pt ID                        

Limited venous access                        

Special Needs                        

Latex                        

No Blood                        

Swallow Precautions                        

Laterality OR                        

Other                        

Top Wristband Uses14%

19%

9%

16%

27%

5%1%

5%3% 1%

Fall Risk

Allergies

Blood

DNR

Pt ID

Limited venous access

Special Needs

Other

Latex

Laterality OR

Vision

Reduce reliance or eliminate the use of wristbands (except patient id),

but in the interim standardize and decrease the number of wristband colors with embossed message

OPSI Recommendation

Band Color Communicates

Red Allergy

Yellow Fall Risk

White/Clear with White insert

Patient Identification

Green Blood

Patient IdentificationPatient IdentificationThe white or clear

with white insert patient identification

wristband in all settings are applied in accordance with procedures outlined in organizational policy on patient identification and registration.

Red for AllergyIt is recommended that

healthcare

organizations adopt

REDRED for

ALLERGYALLERGY alert

with the word “Allergy”

embossed/printed on it

By adopting red for allergy alert, the standardization can be easily achieved since 2 out of 3 Ohio organizations already use RED for allergy alert

Yellow for Fall RiskYellow for Fall RiskIt is recommended that

healthcare

organizations adopt

YellowYellow for

FALL RISKFALL RISK

with the word “Fall Risk”

embossed/printed on it

Falls account for more than 70% of the total injury related health costs among people 60 years of age and older

Green for BloodGreen for BloodIt is recommended that

healthcare

organizations adopt

GreenGreen for

BloodBlood The risk of error due to

misidentification at the bedside is recognized as one of the prime causes of incorrect transfusion

Blood

Community Bands

While healthcare supports the community

(charity or fashion) wristbands they can be

confused with the alert message a colored

wristband in the

Healthcare setting

Resources

• OPSI website – www.ohiopatientsafety.org

• Posters

• Tool Kit

Questions?