Hospitals are being told to standardise wristbands to cut out errors in care.
The National Patient Safety Agency has ordered NHS trusts to use white tags with black text giving details such as name, date of birth and NHS number.
It has given trusts in England and Wales until next July to implement the rules, the Nursing Standard reported.
The watchdog estimates 2,900 patients a year are given the incorrect care because of confusion over bands, which can differ in colour and content.
Some hospitals even use handwritten tags.
The issue is part of a wider problem of treatment errors in the NHS: More than 24,000 hospital patients were reportedly given the wrong treatment last year in England and Wales.
"This is great news for patients. It is worrying so many mistakes are made and hopefully this will go someway to stopping this"
The watchdog was concerned that health staff were becoming confused by the different procedures when they moved jobs or worked in different trusts.
It has received reports of patients being placed in the wrong wards and given the wrong medication and blood. Some of these mistakes could have been lethal, the watchdog admitted.
Helen Glenister, deputy chief executive at the NPSA, said: "This will help frontline staff, who work in different NHS hospitals across England and Wales to make patient care safer.
"Wristbands are an important safety check in patient identification but do not take away the need for clinicians to check identification directly with patients.
"In cases where patients are unable to provide their own details because they are critically ill, unconscious, confused or cannot communicate, wristbands provide a vital backup."
The rules say that the bands must only include the patients' name - but with the surname first - date of birth and NHS number.
Risks
Wristbands must be white with black text - printed where possible - and in Wales it should include the patients' first line of their address, which is a requirement of the Welsh government.
Patients with known risks, such as allergies, or patients who do not wish to receive blood products, should be given a red wristband with text in black.
The watchdog also issued guidance calling on hospitals to put protocols in place to ensure wristbands are always put on patients and safeguards are in place if they are lost.
Mike Hayward, of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "This guidance is long overdue. It will refocus the minds of nurses on making sure that the right patient gets the right treatment."
He said the move was especially important for agency and bank staff who work in one or more hospitals."
Michael Summers, of the Patients Association, added: "This is great news for patients. It is worrying so many mistakes are made and hopefully this will go some way to stopping this."
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