As many as 98,000 people die each year in the U.S. from medical errors related to medication, surgery, and misdiagnosis, according to the FDA. With medical errors now identified as a leading cause of death, the need for establishing positive patient identification is essential.

Multi-Level Support for Wristband Standardization Programs As more and more hospitals band together to improve patient safety by standardizing color-coded wristbands, Standard Register has developed a comprehensive program of services to support these state-based and regional initiatives. The program includes:

Wristbands and Labels, color-coded and preprinted to comply with state and/or regional standards.

Training and Educational Materials to educate clinicians, admissions staff, patients and visitors on this critical patient safety initiative. You can rely on us to support you from design through distribution, producing everything from posters and brochures to pocket or badge reference cards to presentation materials.

Management Tools With our browser-based SMARTworks® technology, your organization can order, create and manage training and educational materials as well as wristbands, labels, forms and other supplies. The most current versions are stored in an online digital repository, allowing staff and clinicians to get what they need when they need it.

Contact us now as you plan your standardization program. Let us free you of many of the administrative details, help improve your program's effectiveness and meet your critical timelines.

Positive Patient Identification Standard Register provides hospitals with a Positive Patient Identification™ (PPI) system to help them prevent costly errors. It's an automated solution that identifies the patient, tying all critical information to the patient's unique bar-coded identifier for accurate, easy recording of tests, diagnosis and care.

Patient LinkUp™ Enterprise (PLUE) is the heart of the PPI system. It integrates with your hospital’s information system to route patient data to the nurse’s station, laboratory, pharmacy or wherever it’s needed -- to generate patient documents and wristbands as well as the bar-coded labels for identifying specimens, blood draws, medication orders and other items specifically prescribed for the patient. It’s an effective way to establish positive patient identification and it also dramatically streamlines the admissions process as Bon Secours Hospital has found.

Picture Capture is a feature of the PLUE solution that gives hospitals the ability to take digital photographs and apply to them to wristbands, forms and labels for immediate patient identification. The addition of patient photos to wristbands, consent forms and other vital documents improve identification while helping to address both HIPAA and JCAHO requirements. Photos also help strengthen a hospital’s defense in billing disputes where patients claim the signature is not theirs.

Bar Code Technology As reported in the February, 2003 issue of U.S. FDA News, “The FDA’s bar coding standards are likely to accelerate the adoption of safety-improving information technologies by hospitals and nursing homes.” Standard Register will provide bar code systems today, which hospitals can use to help reduce exposure to medical errors, adverse drug events (ADEs) and litigation costs. For information about leveraging bar code technology, contact us now.

Document Design Services Leverage our resources and expertise to align patient and clinical documentation with changing regulatory requirements and create an environment that fosters patient safety. You can look to us to provide support for audit preparation, document audits for JCAHO-approved terminology, document design support for bar code conversions as well as assistance in transitioning documents to meet multilingual requirements you may have. Contact us now for more information.

Six Sigma in Healthcare The pressures on healthcare are tremendous with patients demanding better service, litigation on the rise and third-party payers paying less. Six Sigma methodologies offer a tool to meet those challenges. First used in manufacturing to reduce defects, today more healthcare provides are applying Six Sigma methodologies to align and optimize processes, reduce costs and improve operational excellence.

Standard Register has been leveraging Six Sigma to drive operational excellence in our own operations and those of our customers. Today, in conjunction with Creative Healthcare USA, we’re helping healthcare providers utilize Six Sigma to transition from paper to digital systems and measurably improve administrative efficiencies, reduce operating costs and improve the quality of patient care. To learn how Six Sigma could be used to improve operational excellence in your delivery network, contact us now.

Related Information & Links

Joint Commission on Accreditatation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)