Maintaining Compliance in a Paperless Laboratory

Best Management Practices for Environmental Laboratories
Oral Presentation

Prepared by C. Hanlin, M. Banal
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, 6001 W Pershing Rd., Cicero, Illinois, 60804, United States


Contact Information: [email protected]; 708-588-3558

ABSTRACT

Historically, analytical laboratory operations have relied heavily on paper for data tracking, logging, and record storage. Stickney Analytical Laboratories at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago are actively transitioning to fully paperless operations. This presentation shares the laboratory’s journey, including a brief history of the effort, key implementation steps, challenges encountered, and solutions developed along the way.
While current technology makes the move to digital systems increasingly feasible, the primary challenge lies in maintaining compliance with the TNI standard, which was largely written with paper-based processes in mind. To address this, Stickney Analytical Laboratories developed and implemented controlled digital workflows to create, maintain, and protect electronic chains of custody, maintenance records, tracking logs, and analytical batch documentation.
This presentation discusses the practical application of digital signatures, document protection, and secure storage—areas that continue to raise questions within the laboratory community and are likely to evolve further. As a result of this transition, paper use has been reduced by an estimated 80–85%, with the additional benefit of improved accessibility to records from any location.