At our hospital, we use a red armband also. We require that the label from that armband have the patients full first and last name (spelling counts!) and their medical record number, date/time of collection and phlebotomists computer ID. If any of this is missing or wrong, the sample is rejected. Period. If it is an emergent situation, then O neg/pos units are given as uncrossmatched until a proper specimen is received. Our rejection rate is approximately 5% each month. Our biggest nursing unit just started to enforce the policy that if the same staff member has one rejected sample, they are verbally warned, two is a written warning, third is suspension and fourth is termination. I'm hopeful that this helps our rejection rate fall to at least 1-2%. I would really hate to see someone lose their job because of labeling issues, but patient safety has to come first and if tubes for testing are not labeled right, what else are they missing?