Legal Blood Alcohol Testing in the U.S. Military

• Published in: Military medicine Vol. 182; no. 1; pp. e1558 - e1561
• Main Authors: Platteborze, Peter L, Wilhelms, Kelly W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Oxford University Press 01.01.2017
• Subjects: Alcohol; Blood Alcohol Content; Chromatography, Gas - methods; Clinical Laboratory Techniques - methods; Clinical Laboratory Techniques - standards; Flame Ionization - methods; Humans; Mandatory Testing - legislation & jurisprudence; Mandatory Testing - methods; Military Personnel - statistics & numerical data; Retrospective Studies; Texas
• ISSN: 0026-4075; 1930-613X
• DOI: 10.7205/MILMED-D-16-00007

To retrospectively analyze multiple years of legal blood alcohol test (LBAT) results as part of a laboratory process improvement plan. We analyzed the LBAT requests received by the Brooke Army Medical Center during calendar years 2013 and 2014. We received 365 samples from 11 installations; 351 were tested and 14 were rejected. Nearly one-third of the tested samples had negligible ethanol levels. One installation was responsible for submitting 10 rejected samples which prompted laboratory intervention. The ability to perform timely LBATs is invaluable to the Department of Defense as the results are more readily accepted in a court of law than routine clinical ethanol test results.