| Hospital medication errors injure 400,000 people every | | | | their patients at a glance. |
| year and cost millions of dollars in rising malpractice | | | | Laboratory labels that specify the types of urine, blood |
| insurance rates, lawsuits and extended hospital stays. | | | | or tissue testing to be done prevent unreadable |
| Surgical errors, while considerably smaller in number, | | | | handwriting from becoming an issue when the wrong |
| are almost as expensive, not merely in terms of | | | | test results are delivered to doctors, and prevent |
| lawsuits but in loss of patient confidence. All these | | | | additional blood draws from patients in an already |
| errors can be prevented by accurate, timely, definitive | | | | precarious state of health. |
| medical labeling. | | | | Patient advisory and warning labels, for everything |
| The errors are not surprising. Hospitals struggle with | | | | from a dietary restriction to a medication allergy, keep |
| budgets, and these fiscal restraints mean they are | | | | patients safe from inadvertent mix-ups, and patient |
| often understaffed. As a result, medical personnel, | | | | chart and file labels provide consulting physicians with |
| from nurses to technicians, often have to work twice | | | | easy access to vital information, such as known and |
| as hard to manage rising levels of admissions as | | | | potentially lethal medical conditions. |
| baby-boomers succumb to the problems of aging, and | | | | In the fast-paced world of medical care, where |
| fast-spreading seasonal illnesses like flu swamp | | | | patients are routinely handed off to shifts every six to |
| staffing parameters. | | | | eight hours, labeling is essentially medical shorthand for |
| Syringe labels that detail the protocols for administering | | | | patient care, enabling workers - even those with |
| medication, backed by medication labels that state | | | | English as a second language - to comply with safety |
| medication names on IV lines, go a long way toward | | | | protocols that protect patients from harm and hospitals |
| preventing medication errors. Additional line ID labels | | | | from serious error. Medical labels are an essential in an |
| and IV tube change labels assist change-of-staff | | | | any medical setting. |
| procedures, helping incoming nurses see the status of | | | | |