Preparing for the Unexpected When developing a potential exit plan for your healthcare facility, make sure to first research the medical record retention laws in your state. The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) has consolidated a summary of these laws in every state. Take a close look at what is required and develop a plan that meets these medical information preservation guidelines. In some cases, that may mean working with a state health department or agency. In other cases, it may mean working with other healthcare facilities and providers in the area. In all cases, it is important to have a record custodian plan in place well before a facility closure so that employees and patients are able to gain access to records as required. Safeguarding Records Before and After Facility Closure or Acquisition With an emphasis on safeguarding patient data for the full retention period, both state and federal agencies provide a great deal of guidance. Take a look at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), which provides guidance for health information management professionals who “are uniquely positioned to assist an organization in closure efforts because of their knowledge of revenue cycle operations, ability to work with the software products used to generate and store patient information, and solid understanding of the process of care and treatment of the patient.” The team of data management experts at Harmony Healthcare IT has spent decades developing and refining solutions to help hospitals store patient data securely, economically and within the bounds of state and federal guidelines. Our data management solution, HealthData Platform(TM) , is a critical piece of the puzzle for hundreds of hospitals around the country preserving protected health information for the long haul. Considerations for Release of Records Harmony’s Records Release service expands on legacy data management services to support long-term records request fulfillment. Harmony serves as an outsourced records release provider to the closing facility, serving as an operational records custodian for healthcare delivery organizations of all sizes. These services include data extraction from a legacy system, record retention in an active archive, monitoring of a web landing page for record requests, and secure record delivery for patients, employers and payers with a detailed audit trail. This can be an ideal and secure option for healthcare delivery organizations that need it. Contact us to learn now HealthData Archiver® can help your facility to plan for the future, no matter what it may hold. Updated from an earlier blog originally published on Sep 06 2018