An unreadable bar code on a product scanned by a cashier at a grocery store can be an annoyance for a waiting customer. An illegible bar code on a wristband or medication dose scanned by a hospital nurse can be far worse than a mere annoyance for a patient. It could lead to a medical error.
Bar coding is one of many highly effective technologies being used today in the fight to reduce medical errors and increase patient safety, one of the health care industry’s highest priorities. Among other things, medical errors can lead to adverse drug-drug interactions, longer hospital stays, the removal of the wrong limb and even death. Study after study reports an alarming number of medical errors every year. Fortunately, numerous technologies exist to help health care providers slash that number and consequently better protect patients.
 

With bar codes, for example, providers can store all sorts of critical patient information on a patient wristband. Nurses at the bedside, for instance, can scan a patient’s wristband to help ensure physicians’ orders are properly observed and medications appropriately dispensed.
 

However, during the course of a hospital day filled with showers, surgical procedures and more, a conventionally printed bar code contained on a patient wristband can become smudged or otherwise damaged. This is why many hospitals and integrated delivery systems are turning to thermal printing for durable, reliable medical bar codes. Where laser and other conventional printers may fail, thermal printers create lasting imprints filled with key patient data, helping to bolster safety and diminish medical errors. What’s more, thermal printers help ensure strong returns on bar coding technology investments.
 

Zebra Technologies, a global leader in delivering on-demand specialty printing solutions in healthcare facilities worldwide, offers a wide range of dependable thermal printers - including desktop, .mobile and cart-based models - to assist hospitals in their patient safety efforts. Zebra’ also offers a broad range of bar code media, including unit-dose medication and specimen labels as well as highly durable, ready-to -print wristbands for accurate patient identification. These include the Z-Band’ Direct wristbands, winner of the 2004 Frost & Sullivan Product Leadership of the Year Award in the field of medical informatics.
 

For Further Information Contact: Zebra Technologies International, 1 800 423 0442.