Question: I need to dispose of some old X-rays to free up space. What steps are needed to do this properly? Posted in Risk Management on Friday, April 1, Answer: You need to take into account not only state and federal requirements and licensing standards, but also the needs and wishes of your patients.
Most state laws require adult patient X-rays be kept on file for seven years after the last date of treatment—the same requirement as for patient records. It may not be acceptable to destroy films if you are keeping the other medical records. Minor patient X-rays generally need to be retained until the patient reaches age After that timeframe, you can dispose of the films, as long as you do it properly from a patient privacy perspective and in accordance with EPA regulations.
Some states have laws requiring that hospitals or physicians try to contact the patient before his or her records are destroyed. For instance, in Maryland, after the death of a physician, the estate must forward a notice to the patient before records are destroyed or transferred; if the patient cannot be located, a notice must be published in a local newspaper about the date and location of the disposal.
In Colorado, the patient must be notified before any records or x-rays are destroyed. In Hawaii, if a health care provider stops operations, he or she has to make arrangements for the retention and preservation of the records for the prescribed period, subject to health department approval.
In Tennessee, records must be sent to the local department of health when a practice or hospital is closed. You may have different retention rates for clinical x-ray files and long-term storage files.
Ensure that you follow the law in your area for long-term retention. Some states may require some types of images to be stored for very long periods of time.
Some universities and tertiary educational institutions may like x-rays for their art and science students. Get creative with them! You could make a lot of craft items with the monochrome and holographic film strips. These could make for some fun Halloween crafts! Fun in the making used a creepy head x-ray because of the eyeballs at the bottom. Find idea here. Here are a few of their ideas:. The kids found it really interesting to see the bones inside the body and we used picture books to show the bones in reference to their bodies.
Glennis, you could try my all purpose cleaner but I highly recommend you try a test area first. Please let me know how you go. What a great idea for quilting templates. Because the xrays are a heavier material when cutting out templates they will last longer than say using cardboard. Also love the idea of framing a few of them….
I want to bind what I have into a book. He says in future if there are any complications we may have to refer these records and then only the required treatment can be decided. So he specifically told my father to keep that file as it is. This happened 20 years back. He is still holding that file.
The Individual has to decide based on the problem and the type of treatment he got. We have to ask the advice of the doctor also if the type of treatment we got had any long term effect and then we can decide how long we can keep.
Points: 2. There is no hard and fast rule in this matter and many people keep the medical records in a file and just keep them for quite a long time. Practically we need not to keep the records for such a long period. What can be done is if the patient is suffering from some dreadful disease then those reports only reports and not the ECG charts or USG images or X-rays or MRI images etc can be maintained for the next round of check ups or specific courses like chemotherapy.
Otherwise the routine test reports are not required to be kept. Only one set of last reports is to be kept for the reference of the doctor as well as for own reference so that we know that what vital parameters have changed in between. Many people go for periodic health check ups and it is a good practice to keep a summary or front page synopsis of those reports for future reference.
Points: 7. Every person for this query may vary and it cannot be put in black and white. There are many who has some disease that needs lifelong medication while others just need till the infection is cured so also the idea of keeping the records of the treatment.
The best can be said depending upon factors like type od disease, age whether the patient is an adult or a minor , allergies, etc as for some disease, we need our past history for better treatment while for some it's just a run-through of years.
While going through the internet to find a better answer to your query, I read this riddle which goes this way: "It is something that that has no legs but follows you through life, Some are short and some are long, It's not invisible and rarely see it.
What is it? Usually, the medical records including tests, medical histories, diagnoses, immunization dates, allergies and Xrays should be kept from five to ten years after a patient's latest treatment, discharge or death.
Medical records are kept electronically i. Medical records either in paper or electronic form should be saved for around ten years for adults and in case of minors, at least two years after they reach the "age of majority or no less than thirteen years.
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