Wristband Color Standardization

Colorado Foundation for Medical Care (CFMC) and the Colorado Hospital Association (CHA), joined forces with the Western Alliance for Patient Safety (WRAPS) to address the need to standardize color-coded wristbands in Colorado. A workgroup was formed in Colorado in the fall of 2006 to address the significant patient safety risks associated with color variation between facilities.

After careful consideration of regional standardization and research surrounding human factors and color-association, the workgroup decided to standardize based on the following color selection:

Do Not Resuscitate: Purple
Allergies: Red
Fall Risk: Yellow
Latex Allergy: Green
Restricted Extremity: Pink

Download the toolkit and Blood Band Addendum for more information and tools on implementation in a healthcare facility.

For more information about this project, please contact Cari Fouts (cfouts@cfmc.org).

The Colorado Foundation for Medical Care (CFMC), the Medicare quality improvement organization for Colorado, prepared this material under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents do not necessarily reflect CMS Policy.