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Dear Billy, The College guidelines summarise admirably: "Diagnostic records are properly retained in individual patient notes or in electronic form, the safe keeping of which is the responsibility of hospital records departments or recipient general practitioners or private practitioners, once the pathologist has issued the reports. Where pathologists have reason to doubt the reliability of systems of patient record keeping, they should bring this to the attention of those responsible rather than attempt to rectify it by duplication and local and prolonged laboratory storage of diagnostic records." The practice you describe is appalling and should be reported to your hospital management. Regards, Jeff Davies >>> "Graham, Billy" <[log in to unmask]> 08/21/02 04:52pm >>> Hi, Does anyone have information on how long wards must legally keep hard-copy laboratory reports, if at all, assuming they will always be available electronically via the lab computer (both active and historical records). This query came to me from the nursing staff. Currently the ward in question receives lab reports and the nurses filter out any showing 'abnormal' results. The medical staff then look up these patient records in the lab computer and take appropriate action. Following this, all the hard-copy reports are filed away alphabetically in boxes dating back 7 years - the reports are NOT stored with the patient record. These hard-copy archives are taking up a lot of room and much staff time in operation of the filing system. I think if the retention of the hard copies is not a legal requirement the ward would like to file them in the drawer labelled 'bin' rather than waste time and space filing them as they currently do. Any advice would be much welcomed. Best regards, Billy Graham. ------ACB discussion List Information-------- This is an open discussion list for the academic and clinical community working in clinical biochemistry. Please note, archived messages are public and can be viewed via the internet. Views expressed are those of the individual and they are responsible for all message content. ACB Web Site http://www.acb.org.uk List Archives http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ACB-CLIN-CHEM-GEN.html List Instructions (How to leave etc.) http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/ ------ACB discussion List Information-------- This is an open discussion list for the academic and clinical community working in clinical biochemistry. Please note, archived messages are public and can be viewed via the internet. Views expressed are those of the individual and they are responsible for all message content. ACB Web Site http://www.acb.org.uk List Archives http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ACB-CLIN-CHEM-GEN.html List Instructions (How to leave etc.) http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/