Provenant Health Partners, a group of affiliated Denver-area hospitals, implemented bar code labeling in various departments throughout their organizations to save time and resources, and guarantee the accuracy of patient records. Our employees would not agree to using the equipment if it wasn't. St. Anthony Central and St. Anthony North hospitals both use the technology in admissions, where the largest savings has been recognized. The hospitals previously used card embossing machines, which are cumbersome and costly, to create wristbands and identify order sheets. Readability was an issue as well.
Statistics prove that embossed card imprints are illegible four to six percent of the time.
They no longer send the card to every department to mark records, but instead print labels to identify the records of each patient. Labels are used to mark the patient's file folders, order sheets and are placed on wristbands. Multiple Stripe printers are located throughout the hospital for generating labels where they are needed. For example, even though patient information is entered into the computer system in the admissions area, labels print at specific nursing stations on the floors. We've experienced an increase in productivity by gathering the information in admissions, and printing the labels up on the floors.