We do much the same as most, but we prepare in advance. "Unknown, Patient" with a special ER-#### Medical record # in the lab system to allocate and print tags. 2 O Pos for males, 2 O Negs for females are kept on hand at all times.
Unknown patients in the ER are banded with a trauma # only until they are identified. The emergency release form the ER sends to us has this #. All we need to do is hand write this number on the already printed tags and send to the ER. 30 seconds. When the patient is identified and we get a real medical record #, we either merge or re-allocate. Usually we can track/trace all units.
Specimens with only a trauma # are good as long as that the is the identification the ER/OR is using. When name/MRN changes, we need a new spec.
We do enough emergency issue, that having units tied up tagged is not a problem. This system works well for us.
We need 2 specs to confirm ABO. We will issue group O rbc and AB plasma.