Quick Guide to the Best Healthcare Printing Supplies
To get the best performance, reliability and cost from your healthcare printing supplies, start with these Zebra patient ID and labeling solutions.
If you need to track and manage healthcare specimens, medications, supplies, and patient identification, your printing supplies can make your job a lot easier or a lot harder.
All it takes is something as simple as a barcode label falling off, barcodes or printed information becoming smudged and unreadable, or adhesives leeching through a blood bag, and suddenly you can find yourself not being able to identify the right patient, match them to the right specimens or medications, or track the supplies you need to provide proper care.
This is why it’s so important to make sure you always use the right printing supplies for your healthcare identification and tracking needs, and that includes high-quality labels and wristbands with specialized materials for each specific task.
All too often, hospitals and other facilities choose cheap, low-quality labels and wristbands over the right specialized printing supplies, and that inevitably leads to problems with adhesion failures, label and wristband durability, and even dangerous risks from cheap label materials contaminating medical specimens or blood samples.
At SK&T, where we specialize in barcoding, RFID, identification, and tracking solutions, we regularly work with healthcare providers to identify the right solutions to avoid these issues, and, in this article, we’ll take a look at the healthcare printing supplies we always recommend.
Why Zebra is the Best Option for Healthcare Printing Supplies
Zebra healthcare printing supplies are always our top recommendation because Zebra offers the healthcare industry’s best portfolio of printing supplies, with specialized and consistent materials to ensure that each product is matched and performs optimally in each specific healthcare task.
Zebra also manufactures its healthcare labels and supplies according to certified ISO:9001 quality standards, so you always get high-quality products that have been pre-tested with Zebra printers in real-world conditions. This helps ensure reliable performance and durability in the most demanding applications, and since Zebra’s printers are the gold standard in healthcare printing hardware, using Zebra supplies and printers together gives you the best of both worlds.
Additionally, Zebra focuses on the needs of frontline healthcare workers, so it develops products with the goal of making their jobs easier. As a good example, it produces printable sheets that allow you to laser print a patient ID wristband and corresponding chart labels on the same sheet, so nurses can save time and don’t have to load different printing sheets or switch back and forth to print wristbands and labels. Or, you can use Zebra’s thermal wristbands and its compact cartridge-based thermal printers to simply pop in a wristband cartridge and print an ultra-soft patient ID wristband in 60 seconds or less.
Recommended Zebra Healthcare Printing Supplies
To see Zebra’s entire portfolio of healthcare printing supplies, you can download our Zebra Healthcare Supplies Guide, but here are a few of the top-recommended solutions we recommend:
Z-Band UltraSoft Patient ID Wristbands
Zebra’s Z-Band UltraSoft patient ID wristbands are thermal-printed wristbands with UV varnish for resistance to water, hand sanitizers, gels, and mild cleaners. This helps ensure that your barcodes and printed information remain scannable and readable for up to 14 days or more, with thorough testing to ensure optimum printed image durability and scanning performance.
Z-Bands are also produced with an antimicrobial coating as well as ultra-soft, flexible, latex-free, and MR-safe materials. So, they’re ideal for delicate skin and maximum patient safety and comfort. They’re also easy to secure and keep fastened with an adhesive tab or clip.
Z-Band UltraSoft wristbands are available in adult, pediatric, and infant sizes, and they’re available in a cartridge option for Zebra cartridge-based direct thermal printers or on rolls for traditional Zebra thermal printers. Best of all, they can be printed and fastened to a patient in as little as 60 seconds, with no hassles and no long-term issues with scannability, readability, or patient comfort.
LaserBand 2 Advanced Patient ID Wristbands
If you need to print patient ID wristbands from your existing healthcare laser printers and especially if you prefer to print your wristbands together with matching patient chart labels, Zebra’s LaserBand 2 Advanced wristbands are a perfect option.
LaserBands are available in sizes to fit virtually any patient, from infants to adults, with a self-laminating design, multiple colors, and specialized materials to protect printed text and barcodes from moisture and hand sanitizers.
There’s also a tamper-evident adhesive closure for safety, with a wristband extender to fit more wrist sizes. Importantly, these wristbands are latex-free, so they’re great for patient safety and comfort, and they’re easy to print, assemble, attach and scan, especially since they lay flat on the wrist.
LaserBands are also compatible with all standard laser printers, and you can print wristbands and chart labels on one sheet, which saves time and effort with every patient.
ComfyCuff Infant and Parent ID Solutions
Nothing is more important than protecting infant patients and making sure they’re accurately identified and matched with parents. With Zebra’s ComfyCuff laser infant wristbands, you can do this with an extremely comfortable and secure wristband made especially for infants, with latex-free material, a self-laminating design, tamper-evident adhesive closure, and the ability to print a wristband with a specialized ID tag that you can match up with parent wristbands.
Specimen and Lab Labels
Our top-recommended specimen and laboratory labels are Zebra’s IQ Color 200D labels for phlebotomy, 8000D laboratory paper labels, Z-Xtreme 5000T lab labels, and 8100T CryoCool Labels.
IQ Color 200D labels are designed for on-demand printing and identification of STAT specimens, with color-coding for more immediate and accurate at-a-glance identification. IQ Color labels use invisible, direct thermal ink technology, so heat from your printer’s printhead activates the invisible ink, allowing you to select the colors you want to make visible. These labels also meet all Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) standards for specimen label formatting.
Zebra’s 8000D laboratory paper labels are perfect for labeling curved surfaces such as test tubes, vials and syringes. They’re direct-thermal, premium, ultra-smooth paper labels with a high-tack permanent acryclic adhesive that helps ensure that your labels adhere to curved surfaces. The adhesive is also glove-friendly, and each label provides excellent print quality and mandrel hold.
If you need lab labels with extreme resistance to common stains and chemicals found in most labels, then the Z-Xtreme 5000T with Image Lock is likely your best option. These labels provide excellent durability and resistance to chemical solvents, including Xylene, so your printed barcodes and information will remain readable and scannable during testing processes.
Low-Temperature Labels
For cryogenic applications and laboratory labels that withstand extremely low temperatures, Zebra’s 8100T CryoCool labels are your best investment. They’re suitable for cryogenics, dry ice and gamma radiation, with adhesion and readability down to -320.8°F (-196°C). When paired with Zebra’s 5095 resin ribbon, you get excellent print quality, durability and readability every time. They’re also tested with a 23-point ISO 9001 certified inspection for the highest label quality.
Blood Bag Labels
For blood bag labeling, where you need to ensure that your label adhesives don’t leech through blood bags and contaminate blood, and you often need resistance to water, alcohol, and blood, Zerba’s 8000T blood bag labels are typically the best option.
Zebra’s 8000T blood-bag adhesive is FDA 175.105 compliant and has been thoroughly tested to resist chemicals, alcohol, blood and water, with no leeching through a blood bag. They also continue to adhere and perform in temperatures ranging from -40°F to 248°F (-40°C to 120°C).
Get Expert Answers and Recommendations for Your Healthcare Printing Needs
To learn more about Zebra healthcare printing supplies, download our Zebra Healthcare Supplies Guide and feel free to connect with our labeling and patient identification experts at SK&T.
As leaders in healthcare printing, tracking, and mobile computing, we’ve helped hospitals and other healthcare providers procure and manage their printing supplies and solutions since 1997, and we’re always happy to lend our professional expertise. We’re familiar with all leading brands of printers and printing supplies, and we can provide professional guidance to help you find the most effective solution at the best long-term cost. To talk with one of our experts, just email us now or call us at 720-851-9108.
