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Color-coded patient wristbands helping area hospitals
By Paul Swiech
pswiech@pantagraph.com
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BLOOMINGTON -- A low-tech device could extend lives and prevent unneeded complications at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington, BroMenn Regional Medical Center in Normal and Eureka Community Hospital in Eureka.

BroMenn Healthcare and St. Joseph announced Monday that the two health care organizations have collaborated on color-coded wristbands to immediately alert doctors and hospital staff to critical information about patients. Eureka Community is part of BroMenn Healthcare.

“It’s an exterior red flag to (staff) that there’s something to be aware of,” explained Mary Anne Kirchner, a registered nurse and BroMenn clinical education specialist.

A red band indicates a patient allergy, yellow identifies a patient at risk of falling, purple is a sign that the patient has a do-not-resuscitate order on file, and pink is for patients with an arm or leg that shouldn’t be used for procedures such as blood pressure checks, intravenous infusions and blood draws.

The bands are in addition to the standard hospital identification band and patients’ electronic medical records and the paper record in each patient’s room, said Mark Dabbs, a registered nurse and St. Joseph director of nursing. The bands are designed to quickly give information to doctors and staff and will be helpful in emergencies and when patients are taken to other departments, such as x-ray and phlebotomy, Dabbs said.

“This is one more piece of our patient safety work,” Kirchner said.

BroMenn and St. Joseph have been working on the bands for more than a year. Representatives of each hospital agreed that having the same color bands at both hospitals made sense because some patients transfer between the hospitals and it’s not uncommon for doctors and staff to work at both facilities.

Dabbs said patients are being asked to remove social cause bands — such as LiveStrong — when admitted to the hospital to avoid confusion.

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Reader comments on this story - 4 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

Spanky wrote on Jul 15, 2008 9:17 AM:

" I hope this don't just confuse the already overworked hospital staff more than they already are!! "

iknowit wrote on Jul 15, 2008 7:56 AM:

" Nice idea but remember: One wristband does not represent the composite of any patient's problems. The staff still needs to take the time to read the patient's chart! "

mds1 wrote on Jul 15, 2008 5:32 AM:

" To Chelly: While they shouldn't have offered you codeine with your allergy, I find it even stranger that they would offer codeine to a new mother. If they couldn't keep track of your allergies, they probably had no idea if you planned to breast feed, and then the codeine would have been contraindicated regardless of the allergy. "

Chelly wrote on Jul 14, 2008 8:42 PM:

" Bromenn had the redbands when I gave birth there 3 yrs ago for allergies. Of course they still offerd me codeine even though it was in huge letters on the band and my chart I was allergic. "
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