How Long to Keep Medical Records: What You Should Save at Home

If you have years of lab results, hospital discharge papers, prescription lists, imaging reports, and old bills piling up in a drawer, you've probably wondered whether it's actually worth keeping all of it.

The short answer: some of it is. Most of it isn't.

There's no single rule saying you have to keep every medical document forever, and there's no universal deadline for when you can toss the rest. But some records are much more useful to save than others, especially if you change doctors, move, develop a chronic condition, have surgery, or need to explain your medical history years later.

It also helps to separate two questions: how long you should keep your own copies and how long a healthcare provider has to keep your official medical record. Those aren't the same thing.

For your own records, keeping a small organized personal health file is usually more useful than saving every piece of paperwork you've ever received.

TL;DR: Key Takeaways

• Keep important medical records that help explain your health history, major diagnoses, surgeries, hospitalizations, allergies, medications, and significant test results.
• There is no universal number of years that every patient must keep their personal medical records.
• Keep records for ongoing or serious conditions for as long as they may be medically relevant.
• Long-term keepers include surgery reports, pathology results, imaging reports, vaccination records, and important lab results.
• A current medication and allergy list is worth keeping and updating regularly.
• Your healthcare provider's record-retention requirements are different from how long you should keep your own copies.
• In the U.S., HIPAA doesn't set one general retention period for medical records. State and other applicable laws may determine how long providers must retain them.

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How long should you keep medical records?

For your personal copies, there's no single deadline that applies to everyone. A practical approach is to keep records based on how useful they may be in the future.

Some documents are worth keeping permanently or for as long as they remain relevant to your health. Others, like routine paperwork or old administrative documents, can be tossed after their purpose is served.

A good rule: If a record could help a future healthcare professional understand an important part of your medical history, keep it.

That includes records related to major illnesses, surgeries, hospital stays, chronic conditions, serious injuries, abnormal tests, and long-term medications.

MedlinePlus recommends maintaining your own personal health record with information like major illnesses and surgeries, test results, medications, allergies, chronic diseases, and family medical history.

If you're unsure what counts as part of your medical history, see our guide on what your medical history includes.

Which medical records should you keep at home?

You don't need a paper copy of your entire chart. Focus on records that are likely to matter later.

1. Major diagnoses

Keep documentation of significant diagnoses, especially conditions that required ongoing treatment or monitoring. This includes diabetes, heart disease, asthma, high blood pressure, cancer, autoimmune conditions, kidney disease, thyroid disorders, significant mental health conditions, and other chronic or recurring conditions.

These records help a new doctor understand when a condition was diagnosed and what treatment you've already received.

2. Surgery and hospital records

Keep records from major surgeries and hospitalizations, including discharge summaries, operative reports, procedure notes, hospital summaries, and follow-up recommendations.

These are particularly useful if you eventually see a new specialist or have another procedure. See our guide on what medical records are for more on what these documents include.

3. Pathology reports

Pathology reports can be important years after the original test, particularly for biopsies, cancer diagnoses, abnormal tissue, or other significant findings.

If you've had a biopsy or other pathology testing, keep the final report with your other important medical records.

4. Imaging reports

You don't need to keep every imaging appointment receipt, but reports from important scans are worth saving. This includes CT scans, MRI scans, mammograms, ultrasounds, X-rays related to significant injuries or conditions, and other diagnostic imaging.

If you have access to the actual images through a patient portal or imaging center, keep those available too, particularly for ongoing conditions.

5. Important laboratory results

You don't need to print every normal blood test.

Keep results that show an important diagnosis, an abnormal finding that required follow-up, or a baseline your doctor may want to compare with future results.

For example, someone managing a chronic condition may want to keep a history of relevant bloodwork so future clinicians can see how results have changed over time.

6. Vaccination records

Vaccination records are worth keeping long term. You may need them when starting a new job, going to college, traveling internationally, entering certain healthcare or childcare settings, or seeing a new doctor.

Keeping a digital copy makes these records much easier to find when you need them.

7. Medication and allergy information

A current medication list is more useful than a stack of old prescription labels.

The FDA recommends keeping a medication list that includes prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, supplements, doses, and instructions. It also recommends keeping the list updated when medications or doses change.

Your list should include the medication name, strength, dose, how often you take it, why you take it, allergies and reactions, current supplements, and any medications you recently stopped when relevant.

Keep a current copy at home and another accessible on your phone.

How long should you keep records for chronic conditions?

If you have a chronic condition, keep relevant records for as long as the condition is being treated or monitored.

You may also want older records that show when the condition started, previous treatments, medication changes, important complications, previous test results, and specialist evaluations.

For example, someone with a long history of thyroid problems benefits from keeping older thyroid test results and treatment information. A new doctor can then understand the history instead of starting from scratch.

The same applies to conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, kidney disease, and cancer.

How long should you keep records after surgery?

For major surgery, keeping records long term is a good idea.

Keep the operative report, discharge summary, pathology report if applicable, and important follow-up information.

This becomes especially useful if you have another procedure later. A future surgeon or specialist may want to know exactly what was done during the earlier operation.

You don't need to keep every appointment reminder or routine administrative document from the surgery.

How long do hospitals have to keep medical records?

If you're asking how long the hospital has to keep your records, there's no single federal HIPAA rule requiring providers to retain medical records for a specific number of years. HHS states that state laws generally determine medical record retention requirements.

If you're asking how long you should keep your own copy, save important hospital records long term, particularly if the hospitalization involved surgery, a serious illness, an injury, pregnancy, cancer, or another major medical event.

For a fuller look at provider retention, see how long hospitals and doctors keep medical records.

Medical records storage: paper vs digital

You don't have to choose. Using both can make your information easier to access.

Paper storage: Use a folder, binder, or small filing box with sections for diagnoses, hospitalizations and surgeries, lab and imaging results, medications, vaccinations, and insurance and billing documents. Store sensitive records somewhere dry and secure.

Digital storage: Save PDFs from patient portals to a secure location and organize by year, provider, or condition. For example:

• Medical Records > 2026 > Blood Tests
• Medical Records > Surgery > Knee Surgery
• Medical Records > Medications

If you use cloud storage, make sure the account has a strong password and appropriate security settings.

The goal isn't to create a complicated filing system. It's to make sure you can actually find the information when you need it.

Saving medical records when you change doctors

Changing doctors is one of the times having your own records becomes particularly helpful.

You may be able to access records through your old provider's patient portal, request copies from the medical records department, or ask for records to be sent directly to your new provider.

Under HIPAA, you generally have the right to inspect and receive copies of medical and billing records held by covered providers and health plans, with some exceptions.

If you need to authorize sending records to your new provider, you may need to fill out a medical records release form.

It's also worth keeping your own copy rather than assuming one healthcare system will always have access to everything from another.

What medical records can you throw away?

Not every piece of medical paperwork needs to be saved forever.

Once you have a complete copy of an important record, you may not need to keep:

• Duplicate copies
• Old appointment reminders
• Routine billing notices that are no longer relevant
• Outdated medication instructions
• Blank medical forms
• Administrative paperwork with no continuing value

Be more cautious with records connected to major diagnoses, surgeries, injuries, disability claims, insurance disputes, or ongoing treatment. If a document could help establish what happened medically, when it happened, or what treatment you received, it's usually worth keeping.

How to safely dispose of old medical records

Medical records contain sensitive personal information. Don't throw them in an open trash bin.

For paper documents: Shred them, either at home or at a local shredding event. Many banks and post offices offer periodic community shredding days for free.

For digital files: Delete them from devices and storage locations you no longer use. Then empty the trash or recycle bin. Consider whether copies remain in cloud backups and delete those too if you want the information fully removed.

For USB drives, CDs, or DVDs containing medical records, physical destruction, such as breaking them or using a shredder that handles optical media, is the most reliable disposal method.

The basic principle: dispose of health information in a way that reduces the chance of someone else accessing it.

A simple medical records checklist

If you want to keep your own medical records organized, start with these:

• Current medication list
• Allergy list
• Major diagnoses
• Surgery and hospitalization records
• Important lab results
• Pathology reports
• Important imaging reports
• Vaccination records
• Specialist reports
• Relevant family medical history
• Current healthcare provider information
• Insurance information when useful

Update this collection whenever something important changes, rather than trying to save every medical document you receive.

Conclusion

You don't need to turn your home into a medical records archive.

Focus on saving the information that tells the story of your health: major diagnoses, surgeries, hospitalizations, important test results, medications, allergies, vaccinations, and specialist reports.

For serious or ongoing conditions, keeping those records long term is sensible. For routine paperwork and duplicate documents, you can usually be more selective.

The most useful personal medical record isn't necessarily the biggest one. It's the one you can actually find when a doctor needs to know what happened before.