Offsite storage for vital records and specimens

Expiring lease and real estate reduction goals prompt accelerated move for diagnostic laboratory

Business challenge

A sizable diagnostic laboratory needed to vacate approximately 50% of their space, most of which was being used as storage. The facility lease was expiring in 30 days, creating an aggressive timeline that was too difficult to meet with in-house resources. Stored records included medical documents containing sensitive data and protected health information (PHI), as well as pathology specimens that required special handling and controlled environmental conditions to avoid breakage and melting. The process had to be governed by strict industry regulations to ensure all the assets were handled in accordance with HIPAA and associated privacy and security standards.

Iron Mountain vital records storage

Iron Mountain quickly put together a plan to clean out the storage space. With this in place, Iron Mountain then successfully prepped all the vital records and assets, moving specimen blocks to a climate-controlled storage unit to preserve their integrity, and instituting special packaging and transport for fragile slides and other breakable assets. All records will remain until retention expiration, at which time Iron Mountain is available to help defensibly and securely destroy documents to control cost and risk.

Results

Already a trusted partner, it was easy for the customer to reach out and ask Iron Mountain for help. From first call to final box stored, everything was handled within the four week deadline. Compared to the previous lease, the customer is saving approximately $2,000 a month in storage costs. A spectrum of options meant assets could be matched to specific storage environments to meet unique requirements. And offsite doesn’t mean offline; everything is properly organized for easy recall should they be needed. With services across the lifecycle, Iron Mountain has become the lab’s go-to resource for storage, management, and when eligible, the destruction of vital records and assets.

Key benefits

• Vacated space on schedule
• Saving ~$2,000 a month in storage costs
• Inventory is organized for easy retrieval