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How long do I have to keep my dental charts?

The Supreme Court of Ohio recently upheld the constitutionality of the state’s four-year statute of repose in medical and dental malpractice actions. A statute of repose is a provision that sets a time frame in which a legal right extinguishes. In other words, the statute of repose places an effective time limitation on when dental malpractice suits may be filed against a treating dentist. Ohio’s statute of repose bars actions filed more than four years after the date of treatment, except in the case of those patients who are mentally infirm and with minors, in which case the four years begins to run upon emancipation.

Dentists had previously been instructed to retain patient records indefinitely to aid in the defense of a lawsuit. However, this favorable court ruling may help relieve dentists’ record-keeping burden. There may be circumstances where a dental office must maintain records for a certain period of time; for instance, the retention requirement for Medicaid records (6 years) and Medicare records (7 years). Participating provider agreements also generally specify record retention requirements, as well as many professional liability insurance agreements. Dentists are encouraged to obtain guidance from legal counsel and their malpractice insurer prior to the disposal of any patient records and to seek guidance on establishing a new record retention policy…By Eric Richmond, ODA Director of Legal and Legislative Services