As we work with more medical practices and health systems to manage their legacy data from a previous practice management system, we’re getting asked how long medical records need to be retained. Laws on this topic vary from state to state. You can check with your attorney on your state’s medical record retention requirements or check your state medical society’s web page. The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) dedicates this page to detailing appropriate medical record retention schedules: Table 1: AHIMA’s Recommended Retention Schedule Table 2: Accreditation Agency Retention Standards Table 3: Federal Records Retention Requirements (pdf) Table 4: State Laws or Regulations Pertaining to Retention of Health Information (pdf) If you are in need of developing a strategy to retain the data from previous patient information systems in an easy-to-use, browser-based system then please contact Harmony Healthcare IT. We are a healthcare IT firm that specializes in legacy data management. Our solutions reduce the cost of supporting legacy practice management systems and their aging infrastructures (servers, operating systems, network, etc.).