One place where custom lanyards are a must is for nurses in hospitals. I’m sure you’ve all seen them wearing them around their neck as they go about their daily duties. Some have a retractable card holder on the end of them. This is handy as they go through different security sections such as entering an intensive care unit.
The retractables allow them to pull their security card away from the custom lanyards so they can swipe their card and then it automatically retracts back into its holder.
Some hospitals also look for antibacterial lanyards to help stop germs passing through the hospitals. It’s difficult to achieve, especially if they insist on printed ones as then you can’t wash them without washing off the print. Sometimes it’s best not to do custom lanyards but just get them unbranded and use it to hold the ID card only.
It might not be quite as secure as printed lanyards make it very easy to identify legitimate staff, but I guess as most nurses are already in uniform even unprinted lanyards make an effective means of identification.
We have just got printed lanyards in the hospital I work at – they look really great and it is so good to see everyone with the same lanyards instead of all sorts of different ones – I think it looks much more professional.