Retention of patient records.

Patient records are essential to provide patients with appropriate health care and to preserve patients' rights. Patient records are also vital to help practitioners defend lawsuits. Therefore, practitioners must maintain patient records in good order for as long as possible. This paper discusses the clinical and legal issues involved in record retention, including the relevant state regulations and record requirements in other health care fields, to provide guidelines for retention of optometric patient records. Based on the statutes of limitations, common practice and sound medical and legal advice, optometric patient records should be retained for a minimum of 10 years after the patient was last seen. Ideally, patient records should be retained forever.