Premie/Infant ID Bracelets

[CajunNurseMan]

The hospital I work for recently implemented bar coding for medication administration, and we are having problems keeping ID bracelets on several patient types, including NICU and Nursery infants. We are looking for a solution to this problem in the form of a laser-printable ID bracelet that won't do damage to the baby's skin, that will stay securely attached to the extremity, and that maintains bar code readability. I'm asking for suggestions and examples of what products are used at your facility. Thanks in advance! J

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

We use the plastic infant bands that have the paper that slips inside...we cut the bar code and put on the paper with the other info and then it protected and doesn't fade or get gross.

[NICURN29]

We use Posey bands and attach a barcode sticker to the Posey band. We then keep these on the babies' ankles.

[MKS8806]

We attach 2 bracelets to our babies - one on the ankle and the other on the opposite wrist. Our bracelets have the sleeve like NicuGals. We have a printer that prints a sticker that is the right size to slip in there that has a barcode, the baby's name and peds name. We place one bracelet on immediately following delivery. The other we keep until after the first bath, then we place the second on. In our SCN, we usually tape the other to the radiant warmer bed to place after the babies are transferred back out to the floor.

[NeoNurseTX, RN]

Each of our babies has a name card on the crib or isolette. We put a scannable sticker behind the card. The baby also has an ID band on but they are not scannable.

[Mimi2RN, ASN, RN]

The bands that we scan come on a sheet about 5" x 8 1/2". We tape that sheet to the warmer, isolette or crib, so it's away from the baby when we scan it. The baby is given regular bands with the same code as mom. Usually the baby only wears one of them at a time, they do come off, and sometimes end up in the laundry, gone forever.