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Colored wrist bands keep patients safe

Nurse Leader Weekly, February 1, 2008

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Healthcare providers have long been using color-coded patient wristbands to alert other healthcare providers to certain patient conditions. However, the lack of standardized colors has led to incidents of confusion and error, particularly among healthcare professionals who work in more than one healthcare setting. Without standardization, colored wristbands may pose a serious risk to an organization and patients. Poor communication is a leading contributing factor to adverse events occurring in healthcare settings, and one way to improve communication is to standardize color-coding for alert wristbands within broad geographic areas. Standardized colors and messages displayed on wristbands provide consistent communication within a healthcare setting and between healthcare facilities.

A survey of Pennsylvania hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers revealed 78% of the facilities used color-coded patient wristbands to communicate important medical information, but the meaning of these colors was not consistent among the healthcare facilities.

Pennsylvania became the first state in the nation to implement voluntary guidelines for standardized colored wristbands for six clinical conditions:

• Allergy - red
• Fall risk - yellow
• Latex allergy - green
• Do not resuscitate - blue
• Patient identification - clear
• Limb alert - pink

When seconds count, a color-specific alert wristband will quickly communicate a patient's status in a crisis, during an evacuation situation, or while in transit between healthcare facilities.

Editor's Note: This excerpt was adapted from the article "Standardizing colored wristbands improves patient safety" featured in the Reading Room on HCPro's new online resource center, www.StrategiesForNurseManagers.com!

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