Spectrum Health Reed City Hospital to Standardize Use of Color-Coded Patient Alert Wristbands

Voluntary effort by caregivers protects patients

Spectrum Health Reed City Hospital has announced a plan to standardize the use of color-coded patient alert wristbands in a statewide initiative focused on reducing inconsistencies between Michigan hospitals that can result in medical errors. The goal of the effort is to decrease the risk of such errors by standardizing the colors of three patient alert wristbands: allergy (red), fall risk (yellow) and do-not-resuscitate (purple) by June 1, 2009.

“At Spectrum Health Reed City Hospital, our number one priority is ensuring high quality health care for all of our patients,” said Barb Cote, director of quality and patient safety officer. “By agreeing to join a majority of hospitals in using the same color wristbands, it improves the patients’ experiences, regardless of which facilities provide the patient care and throughout the duration of a patients’ treatment. This is one simple, but important, step to help ensure safe, quality care.”

At the close of 2008, more than 25 states had standardized color-coded patient alert wristbands. Consistent with these states, the Michigan Health & Hospital Association Patient Safety Organization (MHA PSO), headquartered in Lansing, is leading a similar effort to consistently and effectively communicate an alert to a health care provider if the patient has an allergy, is a fall risk, and/or carries a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order. In addition to the meaning associated with the specific color, the alert is pre-printed on the wristband to further reduce the chance for confusion when patients, physicians and nurses travel between different hospitals.

The MHA PSO Board clarified that this initiative is not meant to encourage hospitals to begin using color-coded patient alert wristbands if a facility currently does not use wristbands. Rather, the initiative’s goal is to gain a 100 percent standardization rate among those Michigan hospitals that currently use color-coded patient alert wristbands.

The MHA PSO will conduct the effort using the same transformational approaches used by the MHA Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality that has made the state of Michigan the national benchmark for patient safety and quality since 2003. The MHA Keystone Center has been featured in state and national media including The New England Journal of Medicine and The New Yorker and has been embraced by the World Health Organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, as a model program to reduce medical errors in nations across the globe.

“Through the MHA Keystone Center, as well as their individual efforts, Michigan hospitals and health systems lead the nation in advancing patient safety and quality initiatives,” said Spencer Johnson, president of the MHA. “Our hospitals are proud of this achievement and are motivated by continuous improvement as they set the quality bar higher to benefit the patients and the communities they serve.”

In order for the color-coded patient alert wristband initiative to be truly successful, patients and family members need to understand the meaning behind the wristband colors, hospitals officials say.

“If patients have allergies to foods, pollens or medications, they should share that information when admitted,” Cote said. “If they have a tendency to lose their balance, they should tell their nurse or physician. And if they have an advance directive, they should let their caregivers know so that their wishes can be honored. Lastly, patients should leave any “social cause” (i.e. Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG yellow bracelet) wristbands at home to avoid confusion. For more information about Spectrum Health Reed City Hospital standardized wristband initiative, please contact Barb Cote at 231.832.7159. Spectrum Health Reed City Hospital has been recognized for its quality care by the Michigan Quality Improvement Organization and has earned the Governor’s Award of Excellence for Improving Care in the Hospital Setting for 4 consecutive years, the Total Benchmark Solution quality award for 2005 and the 2006 and 2007 VHA Leadership Award for clinical excellence.