The NY Times with an interesting piece on the controversy surrounding color coded bracelets for patient conditions.
There is conflict between clarity and patient privacy, like those who wear bracelets signifying a DNR status:
The nation’s leading hospital-accreditation agency, known as the Joint Commission, has expressed caution about the new system, citing concerns about branding patients by their end-of-life choices, or inadvertently broadcasting those choices to family and friends who have not been consulted.
A bigger problem is that the colors are not standardized, as there is significant variation in hospitals across the country:
A survey by the Greater New York Hospital Association last year found nine different colors used to denote patients with D.N.R. orders, five to indicate allergies and nine to highlight risks of falling.
That’s frankly ridiculous. Unless they can come up with a nationwide, uniform standard, the colored bracelet system has the potential to cause more harm than good.
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We have red wrist bands to indicate that a patient does not want blood transfusions. There’s a new one, confusing to someone not familiar with out floor. We don’t use allergy or DNR wrist bands. I’m not sure why, but with each nurse on my floor only having 1-2 patients, it’s not hard to know off the top of your head if they’re an DNR, or check allergies before giving a new med. But then, come to think of it, it’s not hard to know if they’re refusing blood, either.