ALERT-A-COLOR™ HOSPITAL PRINTER AND WRISTBANDS
Updated: Mar 3
AMT Datasouth Releases “Alert-a-Color™” – a New Printer and Wristband Solution that Prints Color-Coded Risk Alerts in Patient Data Records in Hospitals
Process is Greatly Improved for Clinicians to Identify Critical Risks Such as Allergies, Fall Risk, COVID-19 Status, etc. When Working with Patients
CAMARILLO, CA, September 16, 2020 – AMT Datasouth announces “Alert-a-Color™” – a new printer and wristband combination product enabling healthcare providers to print patient alerts, including infectious disease status such as for COVID-19, on the patient’s wristband. The printer-wristband combination directly prints typical wristband identification data but additionally prints color stripes or symbols to show alerts for critical risk conditions. The Alert-a-Color process eliminates the need to add colored snaps, tags, or additional color bands to the patient’s wrist. With this new product, risk of errors is reduced, the patient is spared the discomfort of multiple bands, the clinician saves time, and there is no need to stock multiple supply items.
Currently most hospitals print a black and white identification wristband directly from the patient record and then manually select pre-printed colored alert wristbands each indicating a different status like “Allergy”, “Fall Risk”, “DNR” (do not resuscitate), “COVID Screened”, etc. Alternately, some hospitals use colored snaps or tags that are individually attached to the wristband. These second steps require the clinician to select the additional wristband, snap, or tag – a potential source of error that is more time-consuming and requires more SKUs to be ordered and held in inventory.
“Using color as an alert notice has always been a unique and important challenge for healthcare facilities”, said Kim Stovall, Director of Sales and Marketing, AMT Datasouth. “Now with the critical need to accurately alert for infectious diseases like for COVID-19, the Alert-a-Color technology not only makes this possible, but easy and safe to do. ”
The Alert-a-Color smart printer uses its embedded programming language “PAL®” to interpret the hospital system’s existing data stream to format the wristband to include identification data, barcodes, and color alert stripes (along with the name of the alert itself) in whatever format the hospital chooses. By printing directly from a patient’s records, risk is minimized since the wristband now reflects the alerts in the patient’s data.
Alert-a-Color uses Zink® Zero Ink technology to apply heat to dye crystals in the specialized wristband material to directly print the ID data and the color stripes. This wristband printing technology replaces toner, ink cartridges, and ribbons (and the waste of printing full sheets for a single wristband) used in other color printing applications and eliminates the various rolls of colored wristbands, snaps, or tags used for alerts.
The Alert-a-Color printer is small and portable, with an optional rechargeable battery, connects to a designated Wi-Fi network, and can even print hospital logos and/or patient photos if desired. And, the PAL can be reprogrammed as needed to handle updates in formats, alert designations, etc.
For more information contact Kim Stovall, Director of Sales and Marketing at 805-402-2432
AMT Datasouth’s wristband and label printers under the Fastmark and related brands have been or are in use in over 500 hospitals, including many Army Medical Department (AMEDD) locations and on the hospital ships USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy.
The company’s PAL® programming language and app accepts virtually any existing data stream and can be used to create and modify layouts and output data formats to meet the exact needs of the hospital. The company also offers AMT Process 24/7 software for admitting patients when not connected to the network or when a mobile tablet is required to admit patients or make changes to layouts of wristbands and labels on the fly. AMT Datasouth is headquartered in Camarillo, CA with Operations in Charlotte, NC. See www.amtdatasouth.com for more info.
Media Contact
David Lawless Marketing and Communications 805-388-5799 ext. 116 EMAIL