Bracelets prompting hospital alerts
Yellow alert! The popular Lance Armstrong fund-raising bracelets are causing confusion in some Florida hospitals where yellow plastic wristbands also stand for “do not resuscitate.”
In Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, the yellow wristbands aren’t causing such trouble. But purple poses a potential problem.
The Spokane County American Cancer Society may cancel plans to sell purple bracelets after hearing that Holy Family Hospital’s “do not resuscitate” bracelets are purple.
The fad of wearing color-coded plastic wristbands is sweeping the country and raising money for various charities.
Leading the craze was the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which has sold 20 million yellow bracelets for $1 each, with money going toward cancer research and education. Armstrong, the Tour de France cyclist who beat cancer, is a hero to cancer patients and anyone facing daunting obstacles.
Celebrities and presidential candidates sported the yellow bands this year. The foundation’s Web site ( www.laf.org) warns of a three- to four-week shipping delay.
Other charities have staked out their own colors. Purple bands raise money for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life events across the country.
Organizers of Spokane County’s five Relay for Life fund-raisers were considering selling purple bracelets imprinted with the word “hope” for $1 each, said Debi Gallagher, community relations manager for the local American Cancer Society.
But Gallagher reconsidered when she heard that Holy Family Hospital uses purple bracelets for near-death patients whose doctors have signed “no code” orders, meaning that no extraordinary measures will be taken to save the patients’ lives.
“We have other ways of raising money,” Gallagher said. “I’m going to check with the different hospitals.”
Holy Family Hospital asks patients to remove their yellow Lance Armstrong bracelets to avoid confusion. The hospital uses yellow striped bracelets to denote emergency room patients.
Deaconess Medical Center and Valley Hospital and Medical Center also use yellow bracelets for emergency room patients, a hospital spokeswoman said. But the yellow is a different shade and the plastic is a different thickness than the Lance Armstrong bands, so patients are not asked to remove the Lance bands.
Kootenai Medical Center in Coeur d’Alene uses color-coded bands: red for information that matches transfusion blood to patients, striped red for allergies and green for diabetes. The hospital uses no yellow bands. Code status is signified by a colored dot.
Sacred Heart Medical Center uses no color-coding on wristbands. Patient bracelets are clear with white inserts.
The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reported Friday that hospitals in the BayCare Health Systems group are covering Lance bracelets with white tape if patients won’t remove them. Yellow means “do not resuscitate” and hospital personnel want to avoid the chance of a deadly mix-up.