Patent Application
20190318664
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The disclosure and prior art relates to identification devices and more particularly pertains to a new identification device for enhancing patient care in a medical care environment.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a band that may be worn by a patient. A plurality of risk indicia is printed on the band to notify a medical care provider of the medical risk to the patient. A patient identifying indicia is printed on the band for identification of the patient. A plurality of covers is each removably coupled to the band to inhibit the risk indicia and the patient identifying indicia from being visible. Each of the covers is selectively removed from the band to reveal the associated ones of the risk indicia and the patient identifying indicia to notify the medical care provider of the medical risk to the patient.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
A plurality of risk indicia 26 is printed on the front surface 14 of the band 12 and each of the risk indicia 26 comprises a different a medical risk for notifying a medical care provider of the medical risk to the patient. The different medical risks may include a fall risk for elderly or physically disabled patients, DNR wishes of the patient, latex sensitivity of patient, latex allergy of the patient and any other allergy alerts pertaining to the patient. The risk indicia 26 may be arranged into a plurality of rows on the band 12, and each of the rows may be assigned a letter designator, such as “F’ for fall risk, “D” for DNR, “L” for latex allergies or latex sensitivity and “A” for other allergies.
A patient identifying indicia 28 is printed on the front surface 14 of the band 12. The patient identifying indicia 28 comprise a bar code wherein the bar code is associated with an identification of the patient. Thus, the bar code may be read with a bar code scanner utilized in the medical care environment for identifying patient information, including but not being limited to, the patient's name and medical history. Additionally, the bar code may be associated with data stored in an electronic database pertaining to the patient.
A plurality of covers 30 is provided and each of the covers 30 is removably coupled to the band 12. Each of the risk indicia 26 and the patient identifying indicia 28 has one of the covers 30 associated therewith. Moreover, each of the covers 30 is positioned over the associated one of the risk indicia 26 and the patient identifying indicia 28 and each of the covers 30 has a forward surface 32 and a rear surface 34. Each of the covers 30 is comprised of an opaque material to inhibit the risk indicia 26 and the patient identifying indicia 28 from being visible. Each of the covers 30 is selectively removed from the band 12 to reveal the associated ones of the risk indicia 26 and the patient identifying indicia 28 to notify the medical care provider of the medical risk to the patient. In this way the medical care provider can be informed at a glance each of the medical risks associated with the patient.
A plurality of adhesive layers 36 is provided and the rear surface 34 of each of the covers 30 has one of the adhesive layers 36 positioned thereon. Each of the adhesive layers 36 engages the front surface 14 of the band 12 such that each of the covers 30 removably covers 30 the associated one of the risk indicia 26 and the patient identifying indicia 28. Each of the adhesive layers 36 may comprise a non-residual adhesive or the like that has a bonding strength low enough to facilitate the covers 30 to be removed from the band 12.
A coupler 38 is positioned on the front surface 14 of the band 12 adjacent to the first lateral edge 18. The coupler 38 engages a back surface 16 of the band 12 adjacent to the second lateral edge 20 wherein the band 12 forms a closed loop shape. Moreover, the band 12 is worn on the wrist of a patient when the closed loop shape is formed. The coupler 38 comprises an adhesive and the adhesive associated with the coupler 38 may be an adhesive that has a bonding strength high enough to inhibit the closed loop formed by the band 12 from being broken. In this way the band 12 is inhibited from being inadvertently removed from the patient's wrist.
In use, the wrist band 12 is worn around the patient's wrist when the patient is admitted into the medical care environment. The cover associated with the patient identifying indicia is removed and the bar code is scanned with the bar code reader for accessing data associated with the patient identifying indicia 28. Additionally, selected ones of the covers 30 on the risk indicia 26 are removed to expose risk indicia 26 that correlate to medical risks of the patient. In this way the medical caregiver can quickly ascertain what medical risks are associated with the patient prior to performing medical care on the patient. Thus, the wrist band 12 helps to avoid common mistakes made in a medical care environment, such as exposing a latex sensitive patient to latex.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
