Today’s hospitals are wildly busy places. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, they’ve become Grand Central Stations where staff race to triage sick patients while keeping the rest of the people on the premises safe. This is no easy feat, especially with all of the people who have to navigate the campus each day—contractors, nurses, visitors, tech teams, and other guests and support staff. How can a hospital keep track of everyone while ensuring the health and welfare of the ill?
The answer is a sophisticated ID badge program.
Gone are the days when a sticky “Hello My Name Is…” name tag will suffice. A hospital requires a far more robust approach designed to keep the people who need to be there in, and the people who don’t, out.
Even small clinics are finding they require more sophisticated visitor management programs, especially in our data-driven age when reports on who’s come and gone are required not just for internal reports, but as a means to secure grants and funding on a state and national scale.
So what’s the solution? In this guide we’ll look at how a hospital can choose the right ID equipment for hospital staff.
Consider Your Size
The size of your hospital staff is the first thing to think about when determining what kind of ID equipment to use. For hospitals that employ 50+ individuals, you need ID tools that can not only quickly identify everyone on campus, but have badge buddies that state each person’s role.
Our huge badge buddy inventory was designed to serve medical professionals and there’s a title tag for nearly every occupation. Need to identify your nursing team? Consider the "RN" Registered Nurse Horizontal Badge Buddy or the Registered Nurse Horizontal Badge Buddy with Blue Border.
Want to make sure patients can easily spot a doctor? No problem with Specialist ID’s "Doctor" Vertical Badge Buddy with Orange Border or "Doctor" Horizontal Badge Buddy with Orange Border.
What about the technicians, physical therapists, or surgical techs who help keep good healthcare going? We’ve got badge buddies for each of those specialities as well.
Identify Guests
Helping your staff identify visitors is just as important as giving patients a clear understanding of who is in charge.
Plan-on ID badges can be personalized, and are a great option in a smaller hospital. With this badge, a doctor or nurse could easily tell whether someone was supposed to be on campus or not.
For larger hospitals, self-expiring badges are better for security purposes. For instance, the Self Expiring Visitor Temp Badges (P/N T2014) displays red lines after one day, indicating that a visitor’s allotted time is up. Impossible to tamper with, this gives peace of mind to all staff that they can clearly see when someone is no longer supposed to be on the hospital site.
Report Visitor Data
While self-expiring one-off badges are great, they aren’t a data collection tool. That’s where the TEMP badge Visitor Management System 06196 comes in. This software system allows a hospital to input information on every guest who steps on campus, print them a self-expiring badge, and collect information to use in reports based on date.
This clever tool can help a hospital review traffic or go back and flag someone who shouldn’t be allowed back on site. But even more appealing to hospital administrators, it’s designed to be super user-friendly and easy to install so a hospital can get it up and running within hours, improving security protocols almost immediately.
ID Badge Accessories
Of course, keeping an eye on visitors isn’t the only thing hospital staff are concerned with. For most individuals working for a hospital, the central goal is patient welfare and that’s where their priorities should lie, not with distractions like flimsy ID badges getting in their way.
There are plenty of ways to make ID badges easier to manage, from lanyards to badge reels. Badge reels are especially helpful for those whose badge IDs double as access cards, so they can easily enter hospital spaces or systems.
Hospitals can’t afford to ignore implementing great ID equipment for their staff. To find top of the line tools, turn to SpecialistID.com.