It is worth noting that Medicare requires hospitals to maintain medical records for at least five years. We recommend that patient files be maintained for at least ten years. The medical records of children should be maintained at least until the children reach their 20th birthday. Of course, you should keep complete files for patients whom you are still treating. Additionally, if a patient has an ongoing condition such as cancer or diabetes, you may wish to retain that patient's file permanently.
Doctors are also business people.
As such, you will have many business records in addition to your patient files. A records retention schedule is included at the end of this article. If you have questions about retaining specific records that are not included in the schedule, please consult your attorney. Finally, doctors often inquire about the proper disposal of files. The best case scenario is to either shred or burn the old files.