The need to store medical records after retirement or closure creates a unique challenge for healthcare providers, and dental records storage is no exception. Dental care providers face unique records management challenges when retiring or closing a practice, just as any other health or medical care provider would.
Retention laws and a need to provide patient access to records govern the choices practitioners face during such a pivotal time in their career. Crucially, the provider remains responsible for adhering to these challenges throughout the life of the record, whether he or she is actively practicing medicine or not.
Dental Records Storage: Why Does it Matter?
Dental care providers, like all other healthcare providers, keep records for each patient they serve. Many classify records based on their status as active or inactive, depending on the frequency with which the patient visits.
However, all patient records are subject to the same retention laws and practices, regardless of the level of patient activity. These records may not all be “active”, but they still mandate secure storage throughout their retention period.
These retention periods preserve records for future use, keeping them available to patients. Often, state-level guidelines enforce the standard. Practitioners must adhere to these rules, even after closing or retiring from their practice.
Retention: What are Your Obligations?
There are several obligations facing dentists and dental care providers throughout the life of a record. First, custodians must store the record securely and keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Secure dental records storage both preserves the record itself and keeps the data it contains secure.
Records must also remain available to patients or other applicable parties throughout the life of the record. This includes patient requests and cases of legal discovery.
Ultimately, laws surrounding retention of dental records mandate tailored custodianship plans. It isn’t enough to simply store the records and walk away. For many practitioners, this is just cause for partnering with a medical records custodian for their dental records storage needs.
You Can Rely on Professionals at Cariend
Cariend is a professional medical records custodianship service provider. Cariend can handle all your dental records storage and custodianship needs.
Partnering with Cariend helps you achieve not just your dental records storage goals, but also provides you with a custodianship plan tailored to your specific records and needs.
Cariend’s suite of records custodianship tools make this possible. Cariend uses these tools to sort, store and preserve your records for as long as is needed, and then destroy them when their retention period ends. Cariend has a Plan for Your Dental Records Storage Needs
When partnering with Cariend, the Cariend team follows a specific process to provide you with the best solution for your dental records storage and custodianship needs.
This starts with assessing your records for access requirements and retention period. At this point, Cariend will securely destroy any records that have already met their retention point.
The remaining records are sorted and indexed for storage in our secure facility. Our patient-friendly records request process ensures patients always have direct, fast access to needed dental records.
Contact Cariend Today
If you’re a dentist or dental care provider approaching retirement or closure, don’t leave yourself or your estate exposed to risk and liability through improper dental records storage and custodianship.
Instead, consider partnering with Cariend. With Cariend, you can achieve a tailored custodianship plan that covers secure storage, patient access and secure destruction needs. This will allow you peace of mind post-closure while ensuring perfect management of your records throughout their retention period. Contact the team at Cariend today to get started or to learn more.
