Who’s under the mask? Colour-differentiated identification labels for perioperative staff

Staff identification in the perioperative environment is difficult when all staff, students and visitors wear the same attire. All attire needs to be laundered to national standards for infection control governance and consequently attire cannot be individualised. In emergency situations it is also difficult to identify the roles of all staff with standard methods of identification. The aim of the ‘Colour-differentiated identification labels’ project was to improve identification of all staff and visitors in the perioperative environment with the intended result being improved communication and safety among staff, patients and visitors. The project began in February 2018 with project leads Diana Bentley and Wendy Howard in the anaesthetics department of the perioperative service in a New South Wales (NSW) public hospital. Disposable identification (ID) labels were initially trialled with the anaesthetic staff for three months. ID labels were designed and printed to give a more uniform appearance. The trial period proved highly successful so the project expanded to include the whole perioperative service at the hospital. Disposable ID labels were subsequently developed that included staff members’ roles, and teams were differentiated by specific colours.