Patient and consumer safety is paramount when it comes to medical/healthcare labeling. Ensuring the legibility of label details is especially important considering handling requirements and often the long term duration of label on medical devices. Barcoding, fineline text, color coding and symbols are used to ensure proper identification and tracking. Printed labels must be resistant to smudging, scratching and often varying levels of chemical and solvent resistance depending on the application and life expectancy of the label.
As an example, a patient in a hospital setting uses a medical device to call the nurse when help is needed by pressing a red button on a handset. Such devices are regulated for safety and compliance with labeling requirements and can have an expected life of several years.
Proper medication labeling is critical for nursing teams to ensure the four basic rules for patient safety — the right medication is administered to the right patient, at the right dose, at the right time. It is common practice for nurses to scan the barcode on a patient’s wristband in addition to the medication label to confirm a proper match before adminstering to the patient.
Specimen labeling is important as errors or illegible labels can result in serious risk to patient safety in the form of misdiagnosis or inappropriate treatment plans.
