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Branding Patients: Beneficial or a Violation of Privacy?
Branding is an identification of a subject by applying a marker on that subject which can remain for the time it will be useful. Cattle are branded. Should patients be branded for one reason or another thought to be in the patient’s best interest? For example, a common hospital branding is to have a colored wrist band on a patient to identify the patient who does not wish to have cardio-pulmonary resuscitation in the event the heart stops beating. This branding is to identify those patients with that emergency when a decision has to be made about whether or not to resuscitate particularly if the patient’s chart is not readily available. But there are many other cautions that could be made easily apparent to the hospital staff by affixing some sign to the patient with a visible sticker such as allergy, prone to falling, need for isolation related to infections and others. In recent years there has been developed policies to have symmetrical sided part of the body that is to be operated upon to be branded to avoid mistaken operation on the wrong sided part. And what about privacy? It might not be unusual for others not involved in the patient’s care to become aware of the branding code (perhaps from their own personal experience) and then be able to identify the branding of another patient. For what conditions or issues would you think it would be inappropriate to brand the patient?
If a person has a problem for which others should be aware for the medical benefit of that person or for the safety of others, is it ethical for such a person to be identified? Or because of the way such branding was carried out in the Nazi era on Jews and others, branding is a troublesome consideration for its application to persons? ..Maurice.
If a person has a problem for which others should be aware for the medical benefit of that person or for the safety of others, is it ethical for such a person to be identified? Or because of the way such branding was carried out in the Nazi era on Jews and others, branding is a troublesome consideration for its application to persons? ..Maurice.
asked May 08, 2011 at 11:46AM in Other
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0Votes
answered May 13, 2011 at 06:26PMThis is a really terrific question. It always bothered me when people were spattered with various signs and bands to identify them for the staff. I felt this depersonalized the patient and was, well, tacky. The problem is, even with "branding", there are so many mistakes that occur on a routine hospitalization that I guess I feel it is the best of 2 evils right now. I agree it is a violation of privacy and demeaning to patients. I don't, however, have a better idea right off the top of my head.
The ideal answer would be that nurses and other staff really knew their patients but this is too much to ask in the current system. -
1Votes
answered May 18, 2011 at 01:22PMI agree with Dr. Sennhltz. It's best until a better system is created. The branding should only be for safety purposes and not overused. I'm not sure it is terribly demeaning. As a survivor of medical errors, I'd much rather have flags all over my body & my room rather than experience another medical error. -
1Votesanswered May 18, 2011 at 05:50PMKelly and Margo, your responses make sense and the intent of such branding would be for the benefit of the patient. But because of the hospital loads, turnovers both in patient and hospital workers and limitation of time to learn about patients,convey patient information and cautions by voice or by writing and reading the chart, one might argue that additional branding might be necessary and perhaps not directly benefiting the patient but of importance and benefit to others. Examples might include such as identifying patients who might be a hazard to others either by contagion (actually these warnings are currently posted outside the patient's rooms regularly and are visible to all visitors) or patients who have demonstrated psychotic behavior. Even simply uncooperative patients might be so branded. Once branding is begun should it stop at patient benefit or should it extend beyond? ..Maurice.
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0Votesanswered May 18, 2011 at 07:13PMYes, agree, these must be used carefully. Another example is branding that is purely for the benefit of the hospital collections and not to benefit the patient. Thoughtfulness must be used to eliminate as many of these as possible.
I think our medical system has something in common with our educational system in this regard. When we build behemoths of care or education, the individual suffers. In our educational system, the student can get lost in huge schools, huge classes, etc. I know many parents that are leaving the public school system to home school as it has become much easier with computerized systems. Most of these parents tell me their children can do in just 3 hours what the rest of the students are taking all day to complete. To me, the difference is caring and love. Likewise, in our medical system, the facilities are getting so huge that people can literally fall through the cracks, dying in the waiting room with no attention. In the opposite situation, a home, the attention and love would be focused on that person. In a smaller hospital, that person would be one of only 10, instead of 1 of thousands. The attention and love that is created is the cause of better care.
We have become so enamored of the "systems approach" to everything, with efficiency being the primary driving factor. Too big to fail may apply not only to banks and insurance companies, but to schools and hospitals. The difference is love. -
0Votesanswered May 18, 2011 at 07:16PMAnd yes, Margo, I also got to experience the deficiencies in our medical system first hand. They were able to do tens of thousands of dollars worth of dubiously necessary xray tests in my 24 hour stay, but were completely stymied at their ability to get me the simple medications I was there to receive. It was tragically stupid.
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answered May 18, 2011 at 07:22PMI have had a few operations recently and do not feel "branded", but have noticed others who were, especially those with infections, in the hospital setting. A simple solution; wide white band is used and the color coded part is put on the "inside" of the wrist band, visible only to those who need to come into physical contact (they would have to hold the band in their hand to view the inside section, much like when being rolled into the OR, your band is checked by many different staff to ascertain ID, surgical site info, etc.) and not just visual contact of a patient. It protects their privacy, but is there for medical personnel as to assess for falls, DNR, Infection Control, etc.
This could be achieved by using those dot-type price tags like those found at yard-sales, and discount of smaller stores. You can all thank me later and name this The 3P system; Pogo-Privacy-Protocol! Cathy
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The content on or accessible through Medpedia.com is for informational purposes only. Medpedia is not a substitute for professional advice or expert medical services from a qualified health professional.
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