One of the doctors in our rural area had suddenly passed away. His office manager (my friend) is getting conflicting info on how long or if she has to be the custodian of records. They use EClinical where she has to pay monthly to keep the records accessible.

She has asked her lawyer, the medical board etc. and most of them say that oh yeah you have to keep the records for 10 years.

I have read on our state website that states "…physician death is not considered abandonment of records…"

I feel that since the office is closed, she no longer has the obligation nor responsibility to even access and make available the records. She stayed open for the past 6 months after his passing to try to help the patients and doctors get their records. I told her this is additional expense with no income coming in. She is not an owner of the practice, just helping out her husband.

Any thoughts or advice ?

She is closing down the EClinical at the end of the year but someone had told her not to download the records bec if she downloaded them she will have to be responsible.

Thanks for any advice.