← South Carolina medical records custodian and retention laws

South Carolina — Medical Records Checklist

For a practice that is closing, being sold, relocating or whose physician is retiring. Prepared 21 September 2026.

How long records must be kept

Before you close — what this state requires

• S.C. CODE 44-115-130, 'Sale of medical records by physician restricted; notice of intent to sell': 'Before a physician may sell medical records, he must cause to be published a PUBLIC NOTICE OF HIS INTENTION TO SELL the records in a NEWSPAPER OF GENERAL CIRCULATION in the area of his practice AT LEAST THREE TIMES IN THE NINETY DAYS PRECEDING THE SALE.'
• 'The notice shall advise patients that THEY MAY RETRIEVE THEIR RECORDS if they prefer that their records not be included in the sale.'

What South Carolina does not require

Stated so nobody infers a duty that is not there.

• State it rather than glossing it: the Act addresses the SALE of records only. It contains NO provision for a physician who retires, closes, or dies without a sale - no patient-notification duty, no transfer procedure, no custodian arrangement. A South Carolina practice that simply closes has no statutory roadmap, which is a reason to have one contractually, not a reason to claim the statute supplies it.

Where this comes from

• S.C. Code s.44-115-120 (Physicians' Patient Records Act)
  https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t44c115.php
• S.C. Code s.44-115-130 (sale of records; notice of intent to sell)
  https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t44c115.php