How Long Should Medical Records be Stored?

How Long Should Medical Records be Stored?

Are you holding onto old files and data that you know should be organized, sorted, and shredded if they are no longer needed? 

Do you know how long you should actually be storing old medical records? 7 YEARS.  That’s right, SEVEN. As a physician, dental or medical office, that is a lot of information to store.  Think about the patients you see every day and how much paper or data they use when storing information.  

Take that and multiply it by 365 and then by 7! That’s probably enough paper or data to take up an entire storage room or at least a few external hard drives.

So how do you keep those files organized, what should you keep, and what can be tossed? We’ve got the answers and the easy solutions to keep you in compliance and out of a mountain of paperwork! 

Why Do I Need to Keep Medical Records?

It is a federal law in California, among all other states, that medical records must be kept for 7 years after the patient’s last visit. 

Other parts to this law have you hold Medicare Plus patient records for 10 years, those involved with a workplace incident for 30 years,  veterans records for upwards of 75, and anyone who has an open case with your company (lawsuit, etc.) indefinitely. 

The law is set forth so that in case of an audit or information needed about that patient within that time frame is readily available and accessible. Failure to do so may result in fines, legal action, or closure. 

medical records

Protecting Your Documents

Along with storing those documents, you must also protect them according to HIPAA. 

Being HIPAA compliant means that a practice or business is responsible for the protection of Personal, financial, and medical information regarding a patient. This means electronic data must be protected with security, and software and paper documents must be stored securely and adequately. 

HIPAA also comes into play regarding the destruction of those sensitive documents. When disposing of patient records, you cannot simply throw them in the trash. 

You can’t shred the paper documents and then throw them in the trash, either.  

Digital shredding involves complete deletion or destruction of the item holding the patient data. 

Did you know that identity theft and theft of protected information almost always come from files/documents left in the garbage? For example, flash drives can be easily stolen, and malware allows those skilled in hacking computer systems to steal data easily when a system isn’t protected. 

Read our latest article about on-site vs. off-site shredding for more insight! 

Protect Your Patients & Practice

There are several ways to keep your sensitive information protected. 

The first way is to have an on-site storage facility that keeps only the old files that need to be saved for those 7 years. 

The downsides to that are:

Another way is to keep them in a standard storage unit. 

Here are the issues with that choice:

The final way is to store your documents with a professional storage company (like us)!

Store Securely with Docu-Trust

Here at Docu-Trust, we pride ourselves in the knowledge, expertise, and facility that we’ve built to protect your documents and digital data. 

We have built a system of record storage processes that ensure your information is stored securely and in compliance with HIPAA and other laws. 

We use sophisticated barcode tracking and a fail-safe destruction method to keep and shred your documents correctly. 

You no longer have to go into a room stacked full of papers or keep track of when each file needs to be destroyed. We will take care of that for you. 

Have peace of mind that you practice, and patients are protected when you store with Docu-Trust. 

Call us today to see how we can help you save time, money and keep your sensitive information secured!