How long must you keep clinical records? Retention periods by country

The question looks administrative and is not: the retention period determines how long you can evidence what you did. Here are the minimum periods in five countries with the specific regulation that sets each one — plus the part almost nobody explains, which is whether those rules apply to you as a nutritionist in private practice.

Before looking at the periods there is a prior question that changes the answer entirely: does your practice produce a "clinical record" in the legal sense? The rules below govern the clinical documentation of healthcare providers. Whether a private nutrition practice falls into that category depends on how the profession is regulated in your country and on whether your practice is registered as a healthcare establishment.

Minimum periods by country

Nuances that change the real period

Spain: the national minimum is not the final period

The five years in article 17 of Ley 41/2002 are a national floor counted from discharge from each episode of care, not from the client’s last visit in general. Several autonomous communities have set longer periods in their own rules, so the period that binds you is the longer of the two. The law also requires keeping documentation "for the time appropriate to each case", which in practice extends the period whenever a claim is open.

Mexico: the clock restarts with every act

NOM-004-SSA3-2012 sets five years from the last recorded medical act, not from when the file was opened. A client who returns every year keeps their file permanently within the period. For minors the criterion extends: the record is kept until they reach the age of majority, plus five years.

Argentina: ten years in the law, with an open debate

Article 18 of Ley 26.529 sets ten years from the last recorded entry, tying that period to the limitation period for contractual liability. When the 2015 Civil and Commercial Code cut that limitation period to three years, a debate opened about whether retention should shorten in parallel. The majority reading is still to keep the ten years the statute states.

Chile: fifteen years from the last entry

Ley 20.584 and the Decree 41 regulation set fifteen years counted from the last information added to the record. As in Mexico, the period renews with each new entry, which in long treatments or chronic clients keeps the record active indefinitely.

Colombia: twenty years across two archives

Resolución 1995 de 1999 sets a minimum of twenty years from the last episode of care, split across two stages: at least five years in the provider’s working archive and at least fifteen in the central archive. It is the longest of the five and the most demanding in documentary terms, because it forces you to distinguish active from inactive records. Resolución 839 de 2017 doubles these periods for victims of human rights violations.

Keeping is not the same as being allowed to use

This is where most people slip. The duty to retain coexists with data protection rules, which impose storage limitation: data is kept while a lawful basis justifies it, and deleted afterwards. Both hold together if you separate two uses:

• Retention as a legal obligation: clinical documentation kept blocked, accessible only to answer legal requests or claims.
• Active use: only while the care relationship or another lawful basis exists.

In practice this means a client who stops coming should no longer appear in your working lists or receive communications, even though their record stays stored as a legal obligation.

What to do with this in your practice

1. Write your retention policy on one page: what you keep, for how long, and from which date it counts.
2. Apply the longest period that binds you — national, regional, or professional — and note which one you chose.
3. Separate the active archive from the retention archive, even if only with a flag on the record.
4. Make sure the date of the last entry is recorded: the whole calculation depends on it.
5. Before deleting anything, check there are no open claims and no minors involved.
6. Confirm you can export the full history from your current tool: if you switch systems tomorrow, the duty to retain stays yours.

Sources

• Spain — Ley 41/2002, de 14 de noviembre, básica reguladora de la autonomía del paciente, article 17 (BOE).
• Mexico — Norma Oficial Mexicana NOM-004-SSA3-2012, del expediente clínico (DOF).
• Argentina — Ley 26.529, patient rights, clinical records and informed consent, article 18.
• Chile — Ley 20.584, article 13, and Decreto Supremo 41/2012, regulation on clinical records.
• Colombia — Resolución 1995 de 1999, Ministry of Health, and Resolución 839 de 2017.

This guide is informational and is not legal advice. Check the regulations in force in your country and consult a professional if in doubt.