Zebra Printers And Wristbands Help Improve Patient Safety And Automate The Identification Process At Valencia Hospital

As science and technology progresses, one of the biggest challenges is to reduce hospital errors as much as possible. As soon as the patient is admitted to hospital, the various processes and the intervention at different levels by medical professionals (from paramedics, nurses and doctors, to administration and laboratory staff), all increase the risk of mistakes being made. For this reason, automatic patient identification (patient ID) has become significantly important in hospitals, where it succeeds in reducing errors virtually to zero.

In April 2007, the Healthcare Department for Valencia Autonomic Government (Conselleria de Sanitat de la Comunidad Valenciana) benefitted from this advanced technology and issued a tender to implement a new patient Auto ID system over 3 years. This new solution uses patient wristbands onto which text or barcodes can be printed directly. This has already been implemented at 28 hospitals

The Challenge

Covering a population of some 5 million citizens, Valencia’s hospitals deal with an average of 7,500 daily admissions, and manage approximately 15,000 beds. Tracking tests, records and prescriptions is a critical factor, and the implementation of an Auto ID system can help minimise the risk of errors. The previous system had used handwritten patient wristbands which resulted in misunderstanding and transcription errors.

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