At my facility, we are running into space restrictions. It is our understanding that workups for antibody patients (panels, elutions, etc) need to be kept indefinitely up until the patients death. New, fire-proof cabinets are extremely expensive. We have considered scanning the documents, but the task is huge to do it for all the files that we have accumulated. Can you let me know what is the current practice at your facility for dealing with this issue?

Thanks, Terry

They are worksheets upon which a conclusion is decided. According to New York State regs, worksheets only need to be kept for 1 year. I believe that TJC says 2 years for worksheets. Even if these are copies of reports, they only need to be kept for 7 years. Most blood bankers keep them "forever" for comparison reasons. If room is the issue, why not scan them and keep electronic copy?

AABB requirements are 10 years according to the 28th edition of Standards (effective November 1, 2012). [5.13.1; 5.13.2; 5.13.3; 5.13.3.1, 5.13.5. 5.15.1, 5.15.1.1]