Posted February 17, 201114 yr comment_33690 I am a fairly new bloodbank supervisor and have a question. Do we need to keep a year's worth of old antigrams and panels? If so, why and where can this standard be found? Seems like most of the antigrams can be pulled from the manufacturer online for the last two or three months.
February 17, 201114 yr comment_33691 Many keep them to use for individual cells to help include or exclude an antibody. I know this opens discussion about using outdated panel cells, and there is at least one other discussion about that. If you do a search, you can see that entire discussion.
February 18, 201114 yr Author comment_33694 I meant the antigram paperwork, like the printed antigram and printed antibody panel, not the cells (if a surveyor were to ask for them). Sorry for the confusion.
February 18, 201114 yr comment_33697 Those sheets that have patient results on them would be considered a worksheet. In New York State, worksheets must be kept 1 year. Also keep in mind that many of these panels repeat with same donor (by the donor number) so you can track changes in patient reactivity if you keep them when you have the patient present nine months from now. When I have a patient with a history of antibody, I like to see if the "pattern" has changed.
February 18, 201114 yr comment_33710 If you are keeping antigrams with results on them you would want to follow your local, state, institutional guidelines on keeping documentation that is related to patient testing results.If you are referring to the blank, extra sheets that are left when the panel/screen cell expires we keep them for as long as we have the cells in house, usually 3 months or when we get around to cleaning out the refrig.
July 14, 201510 yr comment_61068 This is an old topic, but would like to revisit it. I am also a new BB sup. I have found where the previous supervisor has kept the blank antigrams as far back as 2004. I read the AABB standards and found 5.8.3.1 to be applicable. My concern is this. We do not enter the antigram into the computer. The only thing we record in Meditech are the results. Would I not need to keep these antigrams for 10 years in order to correlate reactions recorded matching antibody ID?Thanks!
July 14, 201510 yr comment_61074 I'm sorry this isn't answering your question, I'm really just curious. Your LIS has result fields for individual panel cells? How do you document selected cell panels?
August 12, 20159 yr comment_61438 I was refering to antibody screening cell antigrams. We record the results for the screening cells 1,2 and 3 in result fields but antigrams are not entered into the LIS.
August 13, 20159 yr comment_61449 It was my understanding that unless you scan the antigram worksheets for a patient with an antibody into a file somewhere that you actually need to keep the worksheets indefinitely, per CAP checklist. Not the blank ones. I was more concerned about how long you had to keep a deceased patient's records. I finally talked to CAP and they suggested 10 years, so I have a drawer full of deceased patients ready to be tossed 10 years after death.
August 13, 20159 yr comment_61451 It was my understanding that unless you scan the antigram worksheets for a patient with an antibody into a file somewhere that you actually need to keep the worksheets indefinitely, per CAP checklist. Not the blank ones. I was more concerned about how long you had to keep a deceased patient's records. I finally talked to CAP and they suggested 10 years, so I have a drawer full of deceased patients ready to be tossed 10 years after death. I had that on my to-do list (call CAP about deceased patients) thanks for the heads up.
August 14, 20159 yr comment_61459 For antibody screens, I print a copy of the antigrams for the current solid phase and tube screens on one sheet. When we have a patient with a positive antibody screen, the patient results are also recorded on one of these sheets. That is attached to the antigrams of the ID panels used for the patient's ID. That packet of worksheets is kept 'indefinitely' (love that word ) at this point. Someday, in my abundant spare time, I hope to get patient antibody ID records scanned. But that all means that I don't have to keep the blanks forever and ever amen - I have a 3-ring binder to store a copy of every antigram we receive. When it gets full, I toss a handful from the back end of the binder (old ones) to make room for the new ones - no magic time except that they've been outdated for quite some time (more than a year).
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