Patient ID

[Cliff]

My apologies to Jane who has posted this poll twice, and in my carelessness I have deleted it. It is now reposted, sorry Jane.

[sgoertzen]

We use the regular hospital ID band (which is bar coded), but currently only medications are being given using the hand-held bar code readers at the bedside. We will be converting to this bar code system for printing specimen labels and administering blood products over the next couple of years.

[Nancy Leland]

We use a hospital arm band, but each band has a unique identifier only found on the arm band(not the patient's hospital number). Every hopsital band has this identifier, not just the transfusion candidates. I want to know if anyone is using RFID?

[bbbirder]

If you don't require a special BB arm band (such as Typenex), do you have other safeguards in place to assure that you have a properly labled speciemen? (2nd blood type on file? 2nd specimen?)

Also, if you don't require a special BB arm band, what kind of "disciplinary action" is given to employees if you have a mislabled specimen? Do you have the same consequences for Lab & BB specimens?

Just curious,

Linda Frederick

[korchek]

Very few hospitals are using barcoded wristbands. Some hosptals have them and don't use them for anything. It is true that the push for barcoded wristbands is coming from medication delivery. The best solution should have medication administration, blood product administration, and specimen collection. RFID is an emerging technology where no one really has a practical solution. The advantage to RFID over barcoding is that RFID does not require line of site where barcoding does. Recently JACHO withdrew a mandate for everyone to use a barcoded ID system.

[adiescast]

We have a very quirky mix, so I can't use the poll to respond.

For inpatients, we use the hospital armband. While the band is barcoded, the barcode is currently only used for point of care testing. The collector has to hand write the medical record number from the armband onto the tube label after they collect the sample and apply the preprinted computer label (which does not have the medical record number on it). The problem is that in spite of my protests, administration has allowed exceptions to these rules. First, they ony allow blood bank to reject samples without the hand written number (the rest of the lab accepts them). Second, they allow several areas to use an addressograph stamp from the chart as the tube label. This sticker DOES have the medical record number on it, and often the hand written number is right over it. So - did it come from the armband? Probably not.

For ER patients, outpatients, and anyone without a hospital armband, we require a Typenex-type bracelet with the preprinted number, patient name, medical record number, date and time of draw, and phlebotomist ID. This is used for the first 72 hours. When the crossmatch expires, we revert to the hospital armband if the patient is an inpatient or use another Typenex if they are an outpatient.

I have been trying to get one of the barcoding systems for phlebotomy, transfusion, and pharmacy. So far it's like trying to herd cats. Everyone agrees that it would be a good idea and no one wants to pay for it. I have asked for the capital money for several years in a row. The LIS manager has asked for it in her budget for the last couple of years. No go yet.

[Richard Kriozere]

We use a hospital arm band, but each band has a unique identifier only found on the arm band(not the patient's hospital number). Every hopsital band has this identifier, not just the transfusion candidates. I want to know if anyone is using RFID?

Our company, Digi-Trax has RFID patient ID bands that can be encoded with a small low cost thermal printer that is RFID ready at 13.56Mhz. If you are interested we can send you some samples and information. We also have a middleware package that can be used to print bar codes and encode RFID from any host lab system.

[Richard Kriozere]

Our company Digi-Tax has developed a bar coded blood collection/transfusion patient ID band system called Hema Trax-ID. If anyone wishes a sample and information they can reply to rkriozere@digi-tarx.com.