How Long Are You Required to Keep Medical Records?
The OSMA recommends that physicians maintain medical records for an indefinite period of time. However, Ohio law does not address a provider's responsibility regarding the retention of medical records. As a general rule, I recommend keeping records for at least 10 years. This period of time will cover Ohio's new 4-year statute of repose and cover the applicable federal statutes of limitations. The exception to my 10-year general rule is that the medical records of a minor or an incompetent patient should be kept for at least 10 years after the minor patient turns 18 or the incompetent patient becomes competent.
If you do not keep your medical records indefinitely, your office should have a formal policy addressing the issue of record retention and that policy should be consistently followed. The AMA recommends that before discarding old records, patients should be given an opportunity to claim the records or have them sent to another physician, if it is feasible to give them the opportunity. Before destroying any medical records, it is important that you check with your professional liability carrier in order to determine if your policy requires you to keep records for a specific period of time.
In order to preserve the confidentiality of medical records, it is best to shred the medical records. If shredding is not practical, at a minimum, place the records in opaque trash bags so that it is not easy to identify the contents of the trash bags.
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