New ID badges address safety concerns for ED, Behavioral, Home Health staff

YNHHS is responding to staff concerns about personal privacy and safety when their employee identification badges display their full names.

Staff within the cost centers for the Emergency Departments, behavioral health (inpatient units, partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs) and Health at Home now have the option to replace their current photo ID badge with a new two-sided badge that minimizes the employee’s name. Notification to employees eligible for new badges is being coordinated at the hospital level. Public Safety/Photo ID offices started distributing badges to designated staff Oct. 14.

One side of the new badge features the first name and first letter of the employee’s last name; the other side includes the first name and full last name. The Photo ID Office will use the current photo on file on the new badge; new photos will not be taken. There is no cost for this new ID badge.

Per the health system’s Photo Identification Badge policy, supervisors and above (as well as physicians, residents and advanced practice providers) will continue using their full first and last names on both sides of the ID badge. The policy also notes that clinicians credentialed through the Medical Staff Office must have first and last names and credentials visible on their badges.

Both sides of the ID badge must be unobstructed and unaltered. Tape or stickers, for example, may not be used to cover any part of the ID badge. (with the exception being employees at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital.)

“In efforts to protect the identities of our employees, we are rolling out badge replacements in designated priority areas across all delivery networks,” said Anne Diamond, DBA, JD, Bridgeport Hospital president and executive sponsor of the health system’s Employee Workplace Violence Prevention Program. “Patients have a right to know who is providing care, and our staff have the right to safeguard personal, identifying information. YNHHS has the responsibility to assure the needs of both groups are met.”

Given the size and scope of the rebadging process it will focus on employees working in high-priority areas: the EDs, behavioral units and home health. New employees assigned to these areas will receive the new format ID badge as they are onboarded.