| General laboratory |
| Accession log records |
2 years |
| Maintenance/instrument maintenance |
2
years |
| Quality control records |
2 years |
| |
|
| Surgical pathology (including bone marrows)Wet tissue |
2 weeks after final
report |
| Paraffin blocks |
10 years |
| Slides |
10 years |
| Reports |
10 years |
| |
|
| Cytology |
| Slides (negative-unsatisfactory) |
5 years |
| Slides (suspicious-positive) |
5 years |
| Fine-needle aspiration slides |
10 years |
| Reports |
10 years |
| |
|
| Nonforensic autopsy records |
| Wet tissue |
3 months after final
report |
| Paraffin blocks |
10 years |
| Slides |
10 years |
| Reports |
10 years |
| |
|
| Forensic autopsy records |
| Wet stock tissue |
3 years |
| Wet tissue of whole organs |
3
months |
| Paraffin blocks |
20 years |
| |
|
| Reports |
Indefinitely |
| Slides |
Indefinitely |
| Gross photographs/negatives |
Indefinitely |
| Accession log records |
Indefinitely |
| Serum/CSF/urine |
2 years |
| Whole blood |
6 months |
| Dried blood stain or frozen tissues for DNA |
Indefinitely |
| Frozen tissue for toxicology |
6
months |
| |
|
| Clinical pathology records |
| Patient test records |
2 years |
Serum/CSF/body fluids (except urine) |
48
hours |
| Urine |
24 hours |
| Peripheral blood smears/body fluid smears |
7
days |
| Permanently stained slides-microbiology (gram, trichrome, etc.) |
7
days |
| |
|
| Cytogenetics records |
| Slides |
3 years |
| Wet specimen/tissue |
Until adequate
metaphase cells are obtained |
| Fixed cell pellet |
2 weeks after
final report |
| Final reports |
20 years |
| Diagnostic images (digitized or negatives) |
20
years |
| |
|
| Blood bank |
| Donor and recipient records |
Indefinitely |
| Records of employee signatures, initials, and identification codes |
10 years |
| Quality control records |
5 years |
| Records of permanently deferred donors |
Indefinitely |
| Specimens from blood donor units and recipients |
7 days post-transfusion |
