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Q & A: How long must the medical staff office retain credentialing files?

Credentialing & Verification Update, August 13, 2008

The Joint Commission requires hospitals to determine how long to retain medical records based upon state laws and regulations and how long the hospital will need the records for patient care, treatment, and services; legal, research, and operational purposes; and educational activities.

Medical staff offices should create a policy for how long credentialing files will be retained. Obviously, files must be maintained as long as a practitioner is practicing at your institution. In addition, you should maintain the credentials files of practitioners who no longer provide care or services at your facility for a period of seven to 21 years. If the practitioner ever treated an infant or pediatric patient, consider maintaining the file for 21 years. If the practitioner treated only adults, it would likely be acceptable to maintain the file for only seven years.

Because individual state laws and regulations vary on this issue, seek advice from an experienced healthcare attorney regarding the issue of "age of retention."  If the space taken up by bulky credentialing files is an issue, consider storing credentials files in a scanned, digitized, or other electronic form to save physical space.

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