(a) Providers of health services that are licensed pursuant to Sections 1205, 1253, 1575 and 1726 have an obligation, if the licensee ceases operation, to preserve records for a minimum of seven years following discharge of the patient, except that the records of unemancipated minors shall be kept at least one year after the minor has reached the age of 18 years, and in any case, not less than seven years.
(b) The department or any person injured as a result of the licensee’s abandonment of health records may bring an action in a proper court for the amount of damage suffered as a result thereof. In the event that the licensee is a corporation or partnership that is dissolved, the person injured may take action against that corporation’s or partnership’s principle officers of record at the time of dissolution.
(c) Abandoned means violating subdivision (a) and leaving patients treated by the licensee without access to medical information to which they are entitled pursuant to Section 123110.
(Added by Stats. 1995, Ch. 415, Sec. 8. Effective January 1, 1996.)