Effort To Standardize U.S. Hospitals' Use of Color-Coded Wristbands on Patients Underway

In a California Healthline Special Report by Deirdre Kennedy, experts discuss potential benefits and pitfalls of color-coded wristbands, which hospitals nationwide use to help alert staff to problems like drug allergies or indicate patient preferences, such as “Do not resuscitate.”

The problem is that hospitals use a wide variety of colors with little standardization for what those colors mean.

The Special Report includes comments from:

Jan Emerson, vice-president for external affairs at California Hospital Association;
Beth Feldpush, senior associate director for policy at the American Hospital Association; and
Niraj Sehgal, an internist and patient safety expert at UC-San Francisco.

Emerson said, “It’s really important to understand that color-coded wrist bands are not the way of determining what a patient’s risk factors are for allergies or falls or that sort of thing. The clinicians should always be looking in a patient’s chart and the wristbands are sort of a secondary method for communicating in a fast paced environment.” (Kennedy, California Healthline, 10/15).

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<h1>Effort To Standardize U.S. Hospitals’ Use of Color-Coded Wristbands on Patients Underway</h1>
<div>		<time class="posted-on" datetime="2008-10-15T00:00:00-07:00">
			October 15, 2008		</time>
		</div>
<p>In a <i>California Healthline</i> Special Report by Deirdre Kennedy, experts discuss potential benefits and pitfalls of color-coded wristbands, which hospitals nationwide use to help alert staff to problems like drug allergies or indicate patient preferences, such as “Do not resuscitate.”</p><p>The problem is that hospitals use a wide variety of colors with little standardization for what those colors mean. </p><p>The Special Report includes comments from:</p><ul><li>Jan Emerson, vice-president for external affairs at California Hospital Association; </li><li>Beth Feldpush, senior associate director for policy at the American Hospital Association; and </li><li>Niraj Sehgal, an internist and patient safety expert at UC-San Francisco.</li></ul><p>Emerson said, “It’s really important to understand that color-coded wrist bands are not the way of determining what a patient’s risk factors are for allergies or falls or that sort of thing. The clinicians should always be looking in a patient’s chart and the wristbands are sort of a secondary method for communicating in a fast paced environment.” (Kennedy, <i>California Healthline</i>, 10/15).</p><ul><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/effort-to-standardize-us-hospitals-use-of-color-coded-wristbands-on-patients-underway/?share=facebook">				Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)				Facebook			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/effort-to-standardize-us-hospitals-use-of-color-coded-wristbands-on-patients-underway/?share=linkedin">				Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)				LinkedIn			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/effort-to-standardize-us-hospitals-use-of-color-coded-wristbands-on-patients-underway/?share=x">				Click to share on X (Opens in new window)				X			</a></li><li><a href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Effort%20To%20Standardize%20U.S.%20Hospitals%27%20Use%20of%20Color-Coded%20Wristbands%20on%20Patients%20Underway&body=https%3A%2F%2Fcaliforniahealthline.org%2Fnews%2Feffort-to-standardize-us-hospitals-use-of-color-coded-wristbands-on-patients-underway%2F&share=email">				Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)				Email			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/effort-to-standardize-us-hospitals-use-of-color-coded-wristbands-on-patients-underway/#print?share=print">				Click to print (Opens in new window)				Print			</a></li><li>				<a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/effort-to-standardize-us-hospitals-use-of-color-coded-wristbands-on-patients-underway/view/republish/">					Republish This Story				</a>			</li></ul><em><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about <a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.</em><p><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/morning-briefing/">Subscribe</a> to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.</p>

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