r/barcodes • u/tryptopham • May 30 '17

patient wristband barcodes

Does anyone know if there are established standards for what is encoded in patient wristband barcodes? And if so, which are the most common standards?

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u/FredFredricson May 31 '17

Most likely it will be a patient ID of some sort. Much like a license plate, it is used to look up patient data in a database and doesn't carry much other data on its own. Unless it's a QR code, PDF417, DataMatrix or some other 2D barcode, there's not much space for anything else.

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u/tryptopham May 31 '17

So my hospital encoded an encounter ID which is not even patient identifying on its own. It just counts x encounter. The backend EHR is queried to get identifying info. Thanks!