Medical records belong to the patient and the healthcare facility in which they were created. This is why patients are allowed a copy of their medical records, but not the original document.

• What are the different types of healthcare records and where are they often stored?
• What is considered an active record and an inactive record?
• What is the difference between purging records and destroying records?
• When are healthcare records allowed to be destroyed and what are some of the reasons records would be destroyed?