How long does Mayo keep medical records?

Posted by Laurie, Volunteer Mentor @roch, Sep 17 7:56am

MAYO DOES NOT DELETE MEDICAL RECORDS

As society becomes paperless, there are some things you may still need copies of. An example is important medical records. Mayo does not delete medical records, but other medical locations may destroy online documents after a number of years. The length of time required to keep medical records is often determined by state regulations. In other situation, your previous clinic may close or it is difficult to obtain previous records.

If you have documents that you consider important for future health care, a Mayo specialist recommends you download or print so you have for future reference. This does not need to be every visit you ever had, but doctor notes for chronic conditions, test results from procedures, or other vital records you think you may need in future. This is especially important if you are a caretaker for someone who is unable to recall previous diagnoses or procedures.

The same advice can be applied to any important documents including dentist, attorneys and pre-arrange funeral documents. There are many circumstance where you assume they will be available when need, but only if business is still around and documents stored properly.

Please share if you have suggestions on how you handle your vital medical records, especially if your seen at multiple medical facilities.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Visiting Mayo Clinic Support Group.

bajjerfan | @bajjerfan | Sep 17 11:01am

I went about 34 years between visits and they still had my patient number in their records system.

vic83 | @vic83 | Sep 17 12:18pm

Fortunately, today with computers we can easily keep our medical records with no clutter. I download all my medical records to my hard drive and it is backed up on the cloud. I also back up records on a thumb drive which I can always take with me in case I might be somewhere with no access.
I recommend people remember to organize their files. By type and/or by year. It is easy enough to create folders and name files so one knows what they are.
Hopefully the medical community is becoming more organized also.
Mayo MyChart connects to my local provider MyChart so things go back and forth easily. And for test results one can see past results in a graph or numerical format for comparison over time. That is great.
But I notice small medical groups have primitive online sites. By law they have to make your medical record available to you on the Internet.