Our ProVue is not interfaced to LIS.  We print ProVue 'Results by Sample' reports and then manually key results from report into Meditech.  I believe that these reports can be considered "instrument printouts". What length of time should "instrument printouts" be retained.  We are not AABB/CAP accredited.

The standard is 2 years usually.  But check all of your regulatory/accrediting agencies.  For example, NYS Dept of Health requires 10 years for most Blood Bank records.

We have an ECHO that is also not interfaced and we must print the results and manually enter. We do not keep our printouts for very long. My reasoning is that we download all the results to DVDs that we have kept since the instrument rolled in here. If someone wanted a result from 5 years ago, I could produce it.

I contacted Immucor about getting the info from the DVDs. There is not proprietary software involved in being able to see the results. The DVDs can be put on any computer and read on Notebook, which I tested to make sure. Do you think the DVDs are good enough?

I did start making my people print the daily QC results because I could see an inspector asking for 2 years of QC records. I wanted to be able to place a box in their hands and not have to shuffle thru DVDs.

We are inspected by CAP.  Everywhere else in the lab QC, surveys, competency etc. only need to be kept for two years, but it is 5 years for blood bank.