March 19, 2015 • Vol 38 • No. 6

When it comes to patient identification errors, a few feet can make a big difference.

That's why the emergency departments are using Soft ID, technology that allows staff to print labels and label specimens right at a patient's bedside, instead of at the nurses' station.

The devices were piloted in the Saint Raphael Campus ED and have been successfully implemented in the York Street adult and pediatric EDs and at Shoreline Medical Center. They will soon be rolled out to other units as part of hospital-wide efforts to improve patient identification and reduce errors that might lead to harm.

Yale New Haven Health System is asking employees to contact their legislators and ask them to oppose the Governor's proposed budget, which dramatically cuts funding to Connecticut hospitals and imposes a hospital tax increase and hospital payment reductions that would cost our health system more than $100 million per year.