USA legal recordkeeping

USA legal recordkeeping

Ted A. Trower

2/13/2000

I have been keeping two sets of records for my clients since I opened my
practice eight years ago. The first chart contains all clinical records.
The second chart contains all financial records. For convenience the second
(financial) chart usually contains copies of all prescriptions and insurance
information.

I have kept these two records separate under the belief that this was the
proper way to avoid unnecessarily releasing financial information were a
chart to ever be required in a legal proceeding. My new office manager has
pointed out that much of our problem with storage space for records could be
resolved if these two separate records were to be merged into a single chart.

How do other offices handle this issue? Does anyone else keep separate
records? Does anyone have experience with a legal situation where such
separation of data was, or would have been, helpful?

Thanks in advance for all responses. Given that this is a business problem
and not a clinical one I will remove all names from the summary of
responses. Obviously I will also honor any request that a response not be
re-posted in the summary.

Thanks again!

Ted A. Trower C.P.O.
A-S-C Orthotics & Prosthetics
Jackson, MI, USA