Article Summary :
With the nationwide move to using EMRs in lieu of paper charts, the duty to preserve evidence has become a more complicated process for medical providers. Routine document retention policies must be suspended and a “litigation hold” is required to ensure that documents are preserved.
Following are 10 tips
1. Plan ahead
2. Know what is legally required
3. Find most effective way to written notice to all parties
4. Identify appropriate members to manage preservation of EMRs
5. Identify various locations of electronic data outside of the main server
6. Right format for the official EMR
7. Create clear and simple policies
8. Train all the employees to preserve EMR
9. Educate all employees about existence of audit trials
10. Implement policy consistently and conduct periodic retraining and auditing
