
And sometimes pragmatism: here in Texas, the retention period for vaccines is long than that for the rest of the pediatric patient record- it is just too labor intensive to go through old charts and pull vaccine records, so we end up storing everything longer.Īs you are no doubt aware, it is important that your practice follows the documented policy you develop for retention and destruction. The final decision will usually be a combination of state and medical board guidelines, legal recommendations, and the risk tolerance of the physicians. If there is some sort of legal inquiry, and a record has been destroyed, your practice will want to show that the record was destroyed in the normal course of business following your practice's medical records policy and NOT as a result of receiving notice of a lawsuit.Īustin, Message Original Message- Just to add an additional consideration to what others have said about state laws, etc.: it is helpful to check with your malpractice carrier. And sometimes pragmatism: here in Texas, the retention period for vaccines is longer than that for the rest of the pediatric patient record- it is just too labor intensive to go through old charts and pull vaccine records, so we end up storing everything longer.Īs you are no doubt aware, it is important that your practice follows the documented policy you develop for retention and destruction. Then it is important to review the retention and destruction recommendations with the physician-owners of the practice.

Outsource your medical records storage, save on the in-house handling cost and let us take the strain of looking after medical record costs so that you are able to focus resources on providing high-quality healthcare for your patients.Just to add an additional consideration to what others have said about state laws, etc.: it is helpful to check with your malpractice carrier.īecause pediatrics has a long look-back period for any perceived malpractice issues, the malpractice carrier can give you advice on what is preferred from their standpoint. In line with our reputation for providing excellent customer service, our management of both digital and physical document files is tailored to the precise needs of the organisations we work with. Outsourcing your medical records storage could be the perfect solution.Īt CAS Ltd our state of the art storage and cataloguing facilities don’t just keep records safe and secure, they make it easy for our clients to find the vital information they need. With medical records having such a long storage life span, keeping them in good order – so that they are kept safe and secure and easy to access – can often be a challenge. Maternity records must be kept for twenty five years after the birth of the last child. Maternity records (including obstetric and midwifery) If a child’s illness or death could be relevant to an adult condition, or have genetic implications for their family, records may be kept for longer. Medical health records storage for children and young peopleĪll kinds of records for children and young people should be kept until the patient is 25 (or 26 if they are 17 when treatment ends) or eight years after their death, if sooner. Electronic patient records must not be destroyed or deleted for the foreseeable future. GP records should be kept for ten years after the patient’s death or after the patient has permanently left the UK (unless they remain in the European Union). In essence, for three main areas of medical health records storage the guidelines are:

It also applies to records about patients treated in the private healthcare sector on behalf of the NHS. The Department of Health has produced guidance on managing health records for NHS organisations in England which covers many kinds of health records and gives details of the minimum retention period. Medical health records storage can be a complex area as different types of medical health records should be stored for different periods of time.
