IDENTIFICATION WRIST-BAND FOR PATIENTS, SUITABLE TO BE USED IN HOSPITALS, NURSING HOMES AND SIMILAR

Abstract: An identification wrist-band for patients, suitable to be used in hospitals, nursing homes and similar, comprises a tag part (2) destined to the support of an identification code (9) of the patient and a part with flexible strip (3) that is fastenable in a permanent way around the wrist of patient and provided with a sequence of holes (4). The flexible strip (3) is made of soft material and it is provided with cross-sectional pre-fracture lines (5) between one and the other of the aforesaid holes (4). The tag part (2) is fixed to one end of said flexible strip (3) and it is made up of two parts (6, 7) that are closable by folding, in a permanent way, between which parts the other end of the flexible strip (3) is passed and fastened by means of at least one pin (11) inserted in one of said holes (4).

Description: "Identification wrist-band for patients, suitable to be used in hospitals, nursing homes and similar". DESCRIPTION The present invention concerns an identification wrist-band for patients, suitable to be used in hospitals, nursing homes and similar. As known, one of the systems recently adopted in the hospital field for the identification of patients provides to apply a permanent fastening wristband to the wrist of the patient (obviously for the time of the hospitahsation) on which an identification code containing the main administrative and clinical data of the patient are reported, as expressed in a codified form for the automatic reading eventually integrated with data that are expressed for the direct reading on behalf of the operator (" human readable "). This system makes the automatic identification of the patient and its clinical/administrative data in occasion of every operation either medical (for instance, collection of biological materials, therapeutic and diagnostic activities, etc), and administrative and of clinical hospitality (for instance the assignment of beds, in particular avoiding the possibility of errors due to the mistaking of a patient for another and incorrect interpretation of the same data). The known identification wrist-bands are made up of a strip of thin but relatively rigid plastic material or of plasticised paper with similar characteristics, that has a portion with greater width, generally with rectangular shape, on which a code containing the data of the patient is memorised by different ways, for instance a bar code or a two-dimensional code. The memorised code can be read and can be recognised by means of appropriate readers when necessary. For its fastening to the wrist of the patient the wrist-band provides a series of equidistant holes along the plastic strip and a coupling pin on the opposite end, that is positioned in proximity of a foldable tongue. After having wrapped the wrist-band around the wrist of the patient, the coupling pin gets engaged in one of the holes and the foldable tongue is then folded onto the pin, that gets inserted into a hole provided in the tongue. Finally everything is fastened by means of an self-locking plastic rivet. Once the fastening has been carried out, the end of the pierced part of the plastic strip that is left over from the coupling pin is then cut in order to prevent it from overlapping the zone that contains the identification code of the patient. This known wrist-band shows some disadvantages, than can be thus synthesised. In the first place a wrist-band made of plastic material that is rigid enough but very thin, and therefore in some ways relatively sharp, is not suitable to an application in the hospital field, where patients can find its application uncomfortable, especially in the presence of sores or local iriflarnmation or other affections. In addition the need to cut the exceeding part of the wrist-band by means of the use of scissors or other cutting tool is not a convenient practice in the field, in which, as it is known, any instrument or tool must be handled with the maximum care for the safeguard both of the patient as well as the staff. Other wrist-bands utilisable in analogous way are described in European patent no. 0712525 and US patent no. 3.818.897. Scope of the present invention is now to provide an identification wristband for patients of the type above described, that differs from the ones currently known in an easier and more comfortable application to the wrist of the patient. According to the invention such scope is attained with a wrist-band comprising a tag portion that is destined to the support of an identification code of the patient and a flexible strip part that is fastenable in a permanent way around the wrist of patient and provided with a sequence of holes, characterized in that said flexible strip is made of soft material and it is provided with cross-sectional pre-fracture lines between one and the other of the aforesaid holes and said tag part is fastened to one end of said flexible strip and it is made of two parts that are closable by folding and are snap fastenable in a permanent way, between which parts the other end of the flexible strip is passed and locked by means of at least a pin that is inserted in one of said holes. The wrist-band according to the invention has therefore the prerogative of being comfortable for the patient, due to the soft material being used for the flexible strip, and not to require any cutting tool for the removal of the exceeding strip, since the pre-fracture'lines that are present between one hole and the other allow to carry out the same removal manually. The characteristics and the advantages of the present invention will become evident from the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof that is illustrated as a non-limiting example in the enclosed drawings, in which: Fig. 1 shows a plan view of a wrist-band according to the invention before its application to the wrist of a patient; Fig. 2 shows the tag part of said wrist-band in magnified longitudinal section according to line H-II of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 shows the tag part of said wrist-band in magnified cross section according to line III-III of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 shows in perspective view the same wrist-band in a condition fastened to the wrist of a patient, before the removal of the exceeding part of the flexible strip; Fig. 5 shows in perspective view the same wrist-band after the removal of the exceeding part of the flexible strip. The wrist-band illustrated in the drawings, where it is indicated as a whole by the reference number 1, comprises a tag part 2 and a flexible strip part or strap 3 with a sequence of equally distanced holes 4 that are intervalled from the cross-sectional pre-fracture lines 5. The two parts 2 and 3 are made of a single piece of non rigid plastic material, for instance of rubber material. As shown in particular in Figures 1-3, the tag part 2 is made of two parts 6 and 1, respectively bottom and top, that are closable by folding by means of rotation around the axis of a foldable plastic coupling tape or hinge 8 parallel to the strip 3. The bottom part 6, from which the flexible strip 3 extends, has a external face destined to rest on the wrist of the patient, while the top part 7 has an external face destined to the support of an identification code 9 (Figures 4 and 5) that contains the main data of the patient to whom the wrist-band is destined and is memorised in a microchip 10 below. The internal face of the bottom part 6 has a pair of pins 11 that are arranged one after the other m the same direction of the holes 4 of the flexible strip 3 and have a mutual distance equal to twice the distance between the holes 4. The internal face of the top part 7 has in turn a pair of holes 12 that are arranged so as to receive, in parts 6 and 7 closed by folding, the aforesaid pins 11 of the bottom part 6. Finally from the internal face of the top part 7 two hook elements 13 extend toward the bottom which are destined to fit in a permanent way into two corresponding cavities 14 of the internal face of the bottom part 6. As shown in Fig. 4, the wrist-band 1 is applied to the wrist of a patient, schematised in 15, by laying onto the same the external face of the bottom part 6, by folding the flexible strip 3 around the same wrist, thus inserting the two pins 11 of the bottom part 6 of the tag part 2 in an appropriated pair of holes 4 of the flexible strip 3, by closing the top part 7 of the tag part 2 on the bottom part 6 so that the two holes 12 of the first receive the two pins 11 of the second, and finally by locking the two parts 6 and 7 to each other in a permanent way by means of fitting of the hook elements 13 in the cavities 14. In this way the flexible strip or strap 3, and the wrist-band 1 with it, get coupled to the wrist of the patient in a permanent way with the identification code 9 well visible until the term of the hospitahsation. The terminal part of flexible strip 3 that, when the wrist-band is fastenend, extends outside the tag part 2 is eventually removed manually by using to such purpose the appropriated pre-fracture line 5 (Fig. 1).

Claims: CLAIMS 1. Identification wrist-band for patients, suitable to be used in hospitals, nursing homes and similar, comprising a tag part (2) destined to the support of an identification code (9) of the patient and a part with flexible strip (3) that is fastenable in a permanent way around the wrist of patient and supplied with a sequence of holes (4), characterized in that said flexible strip (3) is made of soft material and it is provided with pre-f acture cross- sectional lines (5) between one and the other of the aforesaid holes (4) and said tag part (2) is attached to one end of said flexible strip (3) and it is made up of two parts (6, 7) that are closable by folding, in a permanent way, between which parts the other end of the flexible strip (3) is passed and fastened by means of at least one pin (11) inserted in one of said holes (4). 2. Wrist-band according to claim 1, characterized in that said parts (6, 7) of the tag part (2) are made up a bottom part (6) that is integral with the flexible strip (3) and having an external face destined to be laid on the wrist of the patient and of a a top part (7) foldable onto the bottom part (6) by rotation around the axis of a plastic coupling tape or hinge (8) that is parallel to said flexible strip (3) and has an external face destined to the support of said identification code (9). 3. Wrist-band according to claim 2, characterized in that said identification code (9) is memorised into a microchip (10). 4. Wrist-band according to claim 2, characterized in that said bottom part (6) of said tag part (2) has an internal face that is provided with at least one pin (11) that is insertable in one of said holes (4) of the flexible strip (3) and said top part of the tag part (2) is provided with at least one hole (12) arranged so as to receive, with said bottom (6) and top (7) parts closed by folding, said pin (11) of the bottom part (6). 5. Wrist-band according to claim 2. characterized in that said foldable parts (6, 7) of said tag part (2) are fastenable to each other in condition by means of respective fastening means (13, 14) that are engageable with each other in correspondence of said internal faces.

Inventors: BONINI PIERANGELO, PERINI GIULIANO, SANNA ALBERTO, BONINI, PIERANGELO, PERINI, GIULIANO, SANNA, ALBERTO
Applicants: BONINI PIERANGELO, PERINI GIULIANO, SANNA ALBERTO, SCIENCE PARK RAF S P A, BONINI, PIERANGELO, PERINI, GIULIANO, SANNA, ALBERTO, SCIENCE PARK RAF S.P.A.
Application year: 2001
Main classification: G09F3
IPC codes: G09F3