How long should I keep my med spa treatment records? I've been doing laser hair removal, spider veins, sun spots and electrolysis for 13 years, lots of charts. Need to make more room. Please help.

This should be discussed with your physician partner as the medical charts are his property. Consult the state medical board for their recommendation.

I agree. Your state has specific regulations about how long you have to keep them

Are you doing manual charting? If so, you might want to consider using an electronic health record system. I use Kareo EHR. It is user friendly and you can customize it to your needs.

The patients own the charts and the proper custodian of them is the supervising physician. It would be prudent to either turn them over to the physician or send a letter to each patient and advise them that the file will be destroyed unless they respond in 60 days. If/when you destroy charts. please be certain that it is done properly since they do contain protected health information

7 years, same as for tax papers.

Shifting to an online software system would be a better idea. It always increases the value of your brand if you have a bigger data base. So I don't recommend removing or losing anything. Just shift to a software.

The charts are medical charts and they are owned by the patient. I know this is a lot of work, but the appropriate thing to do is contact the patients and ask them if they want the chart and if not, they can be properly destroyed.

Other than that, check with the state medical board for how long you have to keep them. They are not medical spa charts, they are medical charts