(a)

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 68-11-305

  • Board: means the board for licensing health care facilities, as established in §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
  • Hospital: means any institution, place, building or agency that has been licensed by the board, as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
  • Hospital records: means those medical histories, records, reports, summaries, diagnoses, prognoses, records of treatment and medication ordered and given, entries, X-rays, radiology interpretations, and other written, electronic, or graphic data prepared, kept, made or maintained in hospitals that pertain to hospital confinements or hospital services rendered to patients admitted to hospitals or receiving emergency room or outpatient care. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
  • Patient: includes , but is not limited to, outpatients, inpatients, persons dead on arrival, persons receiving emergency room care, and the newborn. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Retirement: means the withdrawal from current files of hospital records, business records, or parts thereof on or after the expiration of the applicable period of retention established pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
  • signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) Unless specified otherwise by the board, a hospital shall retain and preserve records that relate directly to the care and treatment of a patient for a period of ten (10) years following the discharge of the patient or such patient’s death during such patient’s period of treatment within the hospital.
(2) In cases of patients under mental disability or minority, their complete hospital records shall be retained for the period of minority or known mental disability, plus one (1) year, or ten (10) years following the discharge of the patient, whichever is longer.
(b) An X-ray film may be retired four (4) years after the date of exposure; provided, that the written findings or interpretations of a radiologist who has read the X-ray film signed by the radiologist shall be retained for the same period as other hospital records under subsection (a).
(c) Notwithstanding any law or rule to the contrary, mammography records shall be retained for the same period as other hospital records under subsection (a).
(d)

(1) Upon retirement of the record as provided in subsection (a), the record or any part of the retired record shall be destroyed by burning, shredding or other effective method in keeping with the confidential nature of its contents.
(2) Destruction of records must be made in the ordinary course of business and no record shall be destroyed on an individual basis.
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