The use of barcodes in healthcare is rapidly expanding. Applications include barcode wristbands for patient identification, mobile printing of patient sample labels, blood bag tagging and tracing and supplies management and tracing. Many of these applications can be met with Zebra, Datalogic and Opticon products distributed by Varlink.

Wristband and Label Printing Solutions for Healthcare Professionals
New legislation standardising the use of patient wristbands, and the information they contain, comes into force on 18th July 2008.
Known as the NPSA Safer Practice Notice No.24, all NHS organisations in England and Wales that use patient wristbands will be affected by this new legislation and the standards that it sets. In the main, all patient wristbands will have to contain the patient’s name, date of birth, NHS unique number and first line of address (Wales only). This information can easily be incorporated into a 2D barcode printed on the patient wristband itself, and the barcode can then be scanned at the point of care to help eliminate errors and mistakes.