How many years can a health clinic or hospital legally keep your files?

[sittingwithfeetup]

About a year and a half ago, I stopped into a mental health clinic and asked them to schedule me.

When I had my first appointment, the counselor started creating a file on me and casually mentioned that I had been there for counseling at a time that was more than twenty years ago.

"Oh, they still have my file? I thought they were supposed to get rid of them after five years."

She answered that "Sometimes they keep them even longer."

In a more recent case, I went to an appointment in a hospital and was shocked to find out they still had my old address from twenty-four years ago. The weird part of this is that I had scheduled an appointment and then cancelled it so they never met me.

I looked on the HIPAA website and was able to find extensive information on how many years patient files have to be kept before they're purged but I could not find anything about how many years a hospital or clinic can keep your information if they feel like it.

I would think this might be dangerous because I don't think everyone who works in healthcare is honest so that having patient files stay on hand could set patients up for illegal disclosure of information which could lead to identity theft and other problems.

In cases where a clinic is permitted to purge your files after five years, I thought this would mean that they HAVE to purge it and there would be no option to keep it?

Does anyone here know how this actually works?

[Hidden]

If you live in the UK the hospital will have your records from way back, in the past when you possibly moved your records would have been destroyed, and a precis would be sent to your new gp. Recently things have changed, your Doctor will have a copy of your Records from Clinic and the hospital will have further records of your treatments and medications, sometimes in the past three years there was minimal interaction between the two. Now we need to sign a release note so all health providers in all departments can see the records of relevant illnesses. When you go to hospital, they have your recorded in hard copy, your GP may have records on a computer where people can work out your needs, past and present although in some cases records would be destroyed. In my case the Departments that treat me have hard copies and when I go to a clinic they send a letter to me, the GP and the instigator of that report. With my general records at Surgery you are allowed to view them viewed by GP or nurse, they go back to 1978, when I left my old GP. However now all health professionals have records to view on computer, You can prevent them been viewed at any time although that is counterproductive.

Have you signed any release regarding records ?

BOB

[MAS_Nurse]

Hi sittingwithfeetup and thank you for your post. borderriever has posted a very helpful reply which answers your question if you live in the UK. If you are not from the UK, please could you tell us which country you are from so that we can try to help you with this, as the laws regarding this may be different in each country.

Thank you and best wishes.

[sittingwithfeetup in reply to MAS_Nurse]

I live in the USA

[MAS_Nurse in reply to sittingwithfeetup]

Hi Sittingwithfeetup and thank you for your reply. I am sorry but I was unable to find much information concerning your query, but you should find some useful information on the following website [there is a section on this website with the title US Law and customs].

Medical Records-Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org>wiki>medic...

I hope this is helpful to you. Are any other forum members able to help sittingwithfeetup with this, please?

Thank you and best wishes.