Missouri Transcription Services

Medical records

Missouri requires a physician to maintain an adequate and complete patient record for each patient, kept for a minimum of seven years from the date the last professional service was provided. RSMo 334.097 also sets out what the record must contain rather than only how long it is held: patient identification, visit dates, current status, physical findings, diagnostic assessment, the plan of care, medications with dosages, and informed consent for procedures. Electronic records are expressly permitted provided the format can be printed for review by the Board of Registration for the Healing Arts. Two things the statute does not do are worth knowing. It sets no period for hospitals, which are held to a longer term under the separate facility rules - so a clinician moving between a hospital and private practice is moving between two different obligations. And unlike Florida or Georgia, it says nothing about what happens when a physician dies, retires, or closes a practice; the duty simply attaches to the licensee or their designee for records under their control.

• RSMo § 334.097 (adequate and complete patient record; seven years from last professional service; electronic records permitted)
• Missouri hospital retention is set separately under facility rules (longer term)