Health and Safety Records retention: an overview
There are many factors involved in the provision of high-quality patient care. The most obvious being access to good medical professionals and facilities. For doctors, administrators and other hospital staff, access to essential patient information has an enormous impact on the services they deliver. Given the number of illnesses, ailments, emergencies and chronic conditions that require attention daily, it’s all too easy for the patients’ paperwork to fall through the cracks.
The careful retention of medical records is therefore crucial. This is especially pertinent when a number of different doctors or facilities are simultaneously contributing to the care of a patient. Without easy yet secure access to the patient’s medical files, issues like administrative delays or incorrect treatment can occur.
Such issues can cost both patients and healthcare facilities unnecessary time and money – and put patients’ health at risk.
The retention of medical records has important benefits
In the UK, medical records play an important role in the NHS’ administrative and managerial decision-making processes. These files ensure that patients’ needs are streamlined for the effective provision of care. This information also serves to bolster medical research and help advance innovative treatments, medicines and equipment.
Medical records come in multiple formats that range from more traditional handwritten clinical notes to computerised clinical records. A patient’s file can consist of emails, scanned records, x-rays/MRIs/echocardiograms and records of similar types of procedures, text messages, and scripts. It’s important for all this sensitive information to be kept together safely – while also being easily accessible to authorised personnel.
Medical records storage laws
Different health facilities and medical practitioners may store patient information according to their own systems and processes. However, certain medical files are legally required to be kept for stipulated periods of time according to medical record storage laws.
Here is a summary of some key medical record retention requirements according to the British Medical Association (BMA).
GP records: General practitioners are legally required to retain medical records for a patient’s lifetime. Upon a patient’s death or emigration (excluding EU countries), files must be kept for three to 10 years depending on the care involved. However, electronic records should be kept indefinitely.
Maternity records: These need to be retained for 25 years after the birth of the last child.
Mental health records: Records related to patients receiving treatment for mental health disorders need to be kept for 20 years from the date of the last contact between the patient or client and any health or care professional employed by the mental health provider. Or, for 10 years after the patient’s death.
Armed forces and prison records: Medical records for people serving in the armed forces, or for those serving time in prison, are not to be destroyed.
Children records: Medical files for children or minors must be kept until the patient’s 25th birthday, or eight years after their death.
Medical record retention requirements for general hospital care: Keep these for eight years after conclusion of treatment or the patient’s death.
How off site storage services can help
Given the high volume of medical records, as well as their varying retention periods, it’s difficult for healthcare providers to manage them all on site. Even the biggest hospitals battle to find the space to accommodate all their backroom needs in relation to administration, finance and HR. Overseeing an efficient and well-managed filing system requires dedicated resources. Without immediate access to the right information, lives can literally be put at risk.
At Access Records Management, we specialise in records management and off site document storage solutions for a huge range of businesses and organisations. Our branches are well located across the country so that we can offer fast records retrieval as and when needed. Our facilities are accessible to authorised personnel 24/7, but we keep a close eye on our security to ensure that all our customers’ documents are kept safe.
To find out more about how we can help you ensure the safe retention of medical records, please contact us today.
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