Hundreds of dates, spread over many years
A clinic that has been freezing eggs, sperm and embryos for years holds material for a large number of patients, each with a consent period that started on a different date. Some are coming up for renewal next month. Some patients have moved house twice since they last spoke to you. Some have separated, and the two partners now need contacting separately.
In many clinics the list of upcoming expiries is a spreadsheet maintained by one person in the lab or the admin team. When that person is on leave, or leaves, the knowledge goes with them.
Why storage renewals are so easy to lose track of
Storage information lives in more than one place. The lab keeps a storage inventory with dewar and canister locations. The consent forms record the period the patient agreed to. The clinic management system holds contact details. Getting a correct expiry date means comparing all three.
- Consent periods differ between patients, and between partners for the same embryos.
- Contact details go out of date because stored patients have no reason to contact the clinic.
- The renewal process involves several letters and a returned form, which is hard to track in a spreadsheet.
- Rules about storage periods have changed in recent years, so older and newer consents may be handled differently under your policies.
- There is no record of how many times, and how, the clinic tried to reach a patient.
What happens when a renewal slips
A missed renewal creates a hard situation for patients and for the clinic. Staff are forced into urgent tracing and difficult conversations at short notice. Your policies and your regulator's requirements set out what must happen next, and following them properly needs a clear record of what was sent and when. Without that record, the clinic is exposed at inspection and patients are let down.
| What you need to know | Where it usually is | In a storage consent register |
|---|---|---|
| Consent period and expiry date | Paper consent form | Recorded per patient and partner, checked by a person |
| What is stored and where | Lab storage inventory | Linked by patient ID, not copied by hand |
| Current contact details | Clinic management system, often stale | Pulled in, with a flag when details are old |
| Contact attempts made | Notes, if anywhere | Each letter, email and call logged with date |
| Renewal form returned | Filed in the notes | Logged with the new period and who checked it |
How we build the register
- We connect to your storage inventory and your clinic management system through their export or API, and match stored samples to patients by ID.
- Consent periods are entered or imported from your records, then checked by a member of staff, because the paper consent is the source of truth.
- The register calculates expiry dates for each patient and partner and shows them on a timeline, with the upcoming months at the top.
- At the lead times you choose, it generates renewal letters and emails from your templates, and a task for the coordinator.
- Each contact attempt is logged: letter posted, email sent, call made, no answer. Returned forms are logged with the new period.
- Patients whose contact details have not been confirmed recently are flagged early, so tracing can start before it becomes urgent.
- A report shows everything due in a period, with its status, for your lab manager and person responsible.
The register records and reminds. What happens to stored material at the end of a consent period is decided by your clinic, under your policies and the law, and the software does not act on samples.
What the lab and admin team get
One shared view of storage consents that does not depend on a single person's spreadsheet. Renewal letters go out at the right time without someone counting forward on a calendar. When a patient does get in touch, anyone on the team can see exactly where their renewal stands.
When your files are reviewed, you can show what was sent, when, and what came back.
Is this your clinic?
- Upcoming storage expiries are kept in one person's spreadsheet.
- You find out about an expiry close to the date.
- Contact details for stored patients are often out of date.
- Contact attempts are not recorded in a consistent way.
- The lab inventory and the consent records do not always agree.