Blood type discrepancies on military identification cards and tags: A readiness concern in the US Army

Current policy allows the use of identification cards and tags for transfus ion purposes during contingency operations. The purpose of this study was t o determine the percentage of soldiers having the wrong blood type on their identification card or dog tag and the effects that these findings could h ave during wartime. Thirty-four of 923 soldiers (3.7%) demonstrated at leas t one discrepancy during testing. Of these 34 discrepancies, 22 (2.3%) invo lved ABO group errors, 10 (1.1%) involved Rh type errors, and 2 (0.2%) invo lved both ABO group and Rh type errors. These errors could lead to transfus ion of the wrong blood type during wartime. The interface of computer syste ms in the near future may decrease the blood type error rate on identificat ion cards and dog tags. Quality improvement programs to increase the accura cy of the blood type on identification cards and dog tags are suggested.