Resolving the Unseen Dangers of Inaccurate Patient Identification
Needless to say, there is already a great deal of anxiety felt within a hospital. The last thing your staff and patients should worry about is whether or not they are receiving the correct treatment. However, researchers at the Emergency Care Research Institute cite mismatched identification as one of the top ten concerns[1] patients have in 2020. As a matter of fact, American healthcare systems lose an average of $6 billion[2] annually due to inaccurate patient identification and matching. In addition to potential patient endangerment and financial loss, poor identification can also lead to:
- Wasted medical resources
- Lost staff productivity
- Incorrect discharge instructions
- Transfusion and medication errors
- Diminished patient trust
To reduce these harms, healthcare professionals are encouraged to double-check wristbands before administering care; however, when bands are fading, crumpled, or inaccessible, proper identification becomes more difficult.
See how our partnership with Zebra Technologies can improve your identification system in our video:
Get more out of your Patient Tracking System with Barcodes, Inc.
As leaders in effective tracking, Barcodes, Inc. works closely with your team to develop a customized patient identification solution that provides reliable visibility from admission to discharge. Working with Zebra’s healthcare-grade wristbands, design and deploy a system that enhances care with visible patient status and real-time feedback, while also benefiting from Barcodes, Inc.’s services:
- Software development and integration
- Staging and product management services
- Automatic re-ordering and shipping
Contact us today to integrate efficiency back into your identification system.
[1] Cheney, Christopher. Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2020. Health Leaders. Mar 17, 2020.
[2] Caramencio, Alicia. Patient-matching issues cost hospitals $1.5M a year. Fierce Healthcare. Apr 17, 2018.
Zebra’s Healthcare Solutions
Hospitals have a myriad of very important moving pieces to keep track of on a daily basis. Keeping an accurate count of medicine, patients, files, lab equipment and specimens, to name a few, can be a daunting task for any medical facility. The good news is, Zebra provides many healthcare solutions to help simplify the tracking of critical hospital inventories. Below you will find solutions to the most common issues healthcare institutions face:
Admission: Hospital admissions staff welcome patients and gather important patient medical information. Recent advances in wristband printing allows for a patient to wear a wristband with a barcode. Simply scan the wristband with a healthcare scanner or mobile computer to obtain a patients records, in real time.
Patient Care: Real time updates of a patient’s medical records can dramatically increase services and care provided by a healthcare facility. Using healthcare scanning and mobile computing devices can help significantly cut down on errors. Scheduling appointments, sending prescriptions and reviewing patient history, are only a few of the solutions available when using Zebra healthcare products.
