Overview
These guidelines support health service organisations to meet the requirements of the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards, particularly the Preventing and Controlling Infections Standard.
Use of posters
The posters group labels according to intended route of administration and are available in PDF and Word formats. They may be altered to reflect the mix of labels needed in specific clinical areas.
Use of labels
The labels listed on this page are for:
History
Risks to patients
Evidence suggests that patient safety risks are associated with the use of patient identification bands. These risks include:
Warning
Medicine lists at transitions of care
When a patient’s care is transferred to another clinician, a current and accurate list of medicines, including reasons for change, is given to that clinician. Some transition points are more prone to error and require special attention, such as:
Hospital mortality indicators (i.e. indicators about trends of death) are crucial elements of a hospital patient safety monitoring program.