SCRMC joins Wisconsin hospitals’ effort to prevent care errors Many hospitals in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other states, use color-coded alerts as a way of quickly identifying important information about patients. Wristbands, stickers, and placards are commonly used to identify allergy warnings, risk of falling, or do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders, for example. Until now, however, there has not been a standard that offers direction to hospitals as to what color identifies which alert. St. Croix Regional Medical Center has joined Wisconsin and more than a dozen other states that are standardizing their approach to hospital color-coded alerts. “Many health professionals work in multiple health care settings, so they must memorize multiple, and sometimes conflicting color-coded alert systems,” explained Kari Peer, RN, SCRMC’s Medical Surgical/ICU Director. The move to standardize color-coded alerts was fueled by reports of serious medical errors being narrowly averted. Last year, for example, a Wisconsin patient was being treated for a serious heart condition. Later, he was transported to a Madison hospital for advanced care. Upon arrival, a nurse commented on his “DNR” wristband. The patient and his wife were horrified to learn that the patient name band used for identification in his first hospital was the same blue color as the wristband the Madison hospital used to identify patients with a “Do Not Resuscitate” wish. Fortunately, the misinterpretation was immediately clarified and no care was withheld. “We have movement of both patients and some of our health care providers in more than one setting and across state lines,” Peer said. “Standardizing how we alert these professionals to patient conditions just makes good sense.” Minnesota and Wisconsin have already standardized to the same set of colors, and the Wisconsin Hospital Association, which initiated this standardization move, hopes to see a national color standard for these alerts.