Use of colour-coded labels for intravenous high-risk medications and lines to improve patient safety

Abstract

The use of CCLs for IV high-risk medications and lines can improve patient safety and improve medical staff efficiency.

Identifying Facilitators and Barriers for Patient Safety in a Medicine Label Design System Using Patient Simulation and Interviews

“…Another study found benefits from a whole system of color coding of medication labels on an intensive care unit as studied in a simulation environment. 40 In addition, this study emphasized the need to familiarize the users with the system used.…”

Improving the safety of continuously infused fluids in the emergency department

“…17 Additional comparison was made in the preferences of continuous fluid care between the pre-and postintervention. With the assumptions of type I and type II error at 0.05 and 0.2, respectively, and statistically meaningful time differences in promptness at more than 5 s, the calculation shows that at least 16 participants are needed for each group.…”

“…7 The study reported an error rate of 78 per 100 000 visits, occurring most commonly in the administration phase (36%). 17,18 Because of heavy overload of patients and increased boarding time of critical patients in ED, multiple drug infusions are simultaneously and continuously infused in a single patient. The unique environment and care system of the ED provides many factors that might contribute to medication error.…”

Standardised drug labelling in intensive care: results of an international survey among ESICM members

“…Optimising legibility and contents of labels on ampoules and syringes according to agreed standards is an evidence-based strong recommendation [27]. The introduction of colour-coded syringe labels can improve proper identification of IV bags, reduce the time required for labelling drugs and lines, and improve identification of errors [28]. Furthermore, scrub persons are likely to label medications and syringes more accurately when pre-printed labels are provided [29,30].…”