When writing the Medical records retention policy in a hospital, the management team should consider state-mandated requirements. Many states require a minimum of five years of data retention; this varies from state to state. For minors, the policy may mandate more years of data retention. As long as all historical data is in one system, there is no problem. But nowadays many hospitals change their EMR/EHR vendors. When that happens, the CIO should remember to move at least five years of historical records to the new EMR. Another alternative is to archive these historical records in a secure portal.
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