Why the Right Patient ID Wristbands and Labels Matter in Healthcare

1. Patient ID Wristbands

Several key factors need to come together in the right way to make sure that your patient ID wristbands are comfortable, durable, and safe enough to be used for all the patients you might need to manage every day.

One of the biggest challenges is the durability of printed barcodes and patient information on your wristbands, particularly when they’re often exposed to water, hand sanitizers, gels, and mild cleaners. Many cheap and basic patient wristband solutions don’t necessarily use specialized materials and varnish to protect printed information and durability, especially when you might need barcodes and printed information to be readable for up to 14 days or more, such as hospital stays.

This is why Zebra Z-Band Ultra-Soft patient ID wristbands are often the best choice. They are thermal-printed wristbands with UV varnish for resistance to harsh sanitizers, gels, mild cleaners and liquids such as water.

They’re also produced with an antimicrobial coating as well as ultra-soft, flexible, latex-free, and MR-safe materials. So, they’re ideal for delicate skin and maximum patient safety and comfort. 

Additionally, Z-Bands are easy to secure and keep fastened with an adhesive tab or clip, and they’re made with ultra-soft materials to ensure comfort for patients of all sizes and ages, from infants to adults.

Conveniently, they’re available in a cartridge option for Zebra cartridge-based direct thermal printers, or you can get them on rolls for traditional Zebra thermal printers. And you can print and fasten them in as little as 60 seconds, all with great comfort for your patients and long-term scannability and readability for your staff.

If your current wristband solutions aren’t providing all of these capabilities, then it’s a good idea to review your options and considering a switch to Zebra Z-Band UltraSofts. 

2. Specimen and Lab Labels

Specimen and lab labels require their own specialized materials and qualities to withstand the harsh chemicals and solvents of lab testing, deep freezes, stains, and more. They also need to adhere to curved surfaces and maintain adhesion, readability and scanning through often extreme temperatures and processes.

For example, for cryogenic applications and lab labels that withstand extremely low temperatures, Zebra’s 8100T CryoCool labels are typically the best investment on the market. They’re suitable for cryogenics, dry ice, and gamma radiation, and they offer adhesion and readability down to -320.8°F (-196°C).

When paired with Zebra’s 5095 resin ribbon, you get excellent print quality, durability and readability every time. And they’re tested with a 23-point ISO 9001 certified inspection for the highest label quality.

For non-deep-freeze environments, Zebra’s 8000D laboratory paper labels are perfect for labeling curved surfaces such as test tubes, vials and syringes. They’re direct-thermal, premium, ultra-smooth paper labels with a high-tack permanent acrylic adhesive that helps ensure that you labels adhere to curved surfaces. The adhesive is also glove-friendly with each label providing excellent mandrel hold and print quality.

For phlebotomy and blood samples, where it’s crucial for label adhesives not to leech through blood bags and cause contamination, Zebra’s 8000T blood-bad labels are almost always the best option.

These labels use a specialty adhesive for blood bags that prevents leeching and is FDA 175.105 compliant. The labels are also thoroughly tested to resist chemicals, alcohol, blood and water, and they continue to adhere and perform in temperatures ranging from -40°F to 248°F (-40°C to 120°C). 

3. RFID Labels for Supplies and Equipment Tracking and Locating

As hospitals and other medical facilities look to streamline patient care, one of key areas that’s increasingly getting a lot of focus is supplies and equipment tracking. After all, one of the biggest frustrations and time-consuming wastes for care teams is not being able to find and locate the right supplies or equipment and have everything in place when it’s needed. 

This is where RFID labels and RFID tracking technology is gaining adoption as healthcare organizations look beyond simple barcoding and to options that can help them track and locate items or their last-known locations in real-time—without manual searches.

RFID uses radio waves, similar to how Wi-Fi works, to automatically detect and identify tiny microchips that are embedded and encoded in labels, so each item, container, or piece of medical equipment cannot just be uniquely identified but can be located to an accuracy of within a few feet.

RFID uses either active or passive technology, where tags send signals to nearby wireless RFID readers to update their location or status or—more commonly—tags are detected as they pass readers at key checkpoints such as doorways, hospital floors, patient room doorways, or storage room entrances.

This way, as an IV pump, monitor, cart, wheelchair or even a box of supplies moves into or out of a patient room, a hospital floor, or a storage area, the item, its location and status can be detected and updated in real time.

This all happens with RFID software that communicates between RFID readers and your EHR or other hospital systems, making item and inventory locations and data available at your staff’s fingertips, through a simple search on their mobile device or a PC.

Your software can even show maps of floors, rooms and even hospital buildings, showing you the current or last-known location of the item or items you need. And this eliminates the time-consuming manual searches that often plague staff and disrupt patient care. 

Get More Expert Tips and Find the Right Solutions for Your Healthcare Needs

To learn more about these and other solutions and the key characteristics and capabilities that can make a huge difference in your patient identification wristbands, healthcare labels, and printing supplies, reach out to our experts at DCM.

As leaders in healthcare barcoding, labeling, RFID and mobile computing, we help hospitals and other healthcare providers stay ahead of the latest technology and efficiency trends. And we’re always glad to share tips, recommendations, and provide solutions that help your teams provide better quality care with less stress, burden, and manual headaches. 

To get started, contact us now at datacm.com.