Hello Canadian Colleagues, I am wondering what other clinical institutions in Canada are doing with regard to retention of hardcopy consult reports. Here in prince Edward Island we now have an electronic patient health record province-wide so we no longer have hardcopy surgical reports filed in the lab. Consult reports received from reference laboratories are being scanned into the patient's report and checked and verified for ledgibility. Any section that does not scan clear enough to read easily is edited to match the hardcopy.
So in our lab, the patient report and any associated consult reports will be stored indefinately electronically. The CAP guidelines (which we refer to but are not held to) suggest "Surgical Consultation" reports should be kept indefinitely. I think therefore, we are meeting the expectation here, but how long should I retain the hardcopy of these consultation reports, 2 years? 20 years?? What are others doing in this regard? Thanks. Greg Greg Dobbin, R.T. Chief Technologist, Anatomic Pathology Dept. of Laboratory Medicine, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, P.O. Box 6600 Charlottetown, PE C1A 8T5 Phone: (902) 894-2337 Fax: (902) 894-2385 "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." - Thomas Jefferson ------------------------- Statement of Confidentiality This message (including attachments) may contain confidential or privileged information intended for a specific individual or organization. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately. If you are not the intended recipient, you are not authorized to use, disclose, distribute, copy, print or rely on this email, and should promptly delete this email from your entire computer system. _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet