Have you had any falls in the last three months?

One of the standard questions they ask at the admitting desk at Queen Elizabeth Hospital here in Charlottetown is “have you had any fall in the last three months?”

Ever since I broke my arm in July, I’ve had to answer “yes.”

What I didn’t know, until recently, was that answering yes meant that I got a special purple coloured wristband to wear in the hospital:

As it’s now been more than three months since I had that fall, today, when I went to admitting in advance of my physiotherapy appointment, I answered “no.”

This answer meant that I got the standard white wristband:

I was never consciously aware of how or whether healthcare staff change their behaviour  when they saw my purple wristband, and I certainly didn’t notice any difference today once I went over to the other side. But it’s good to know there is a system in place to provide additional support for the falling- prone, even if, as in my case, the fall was largely self-inflicted