Patient records are among the topics CHCPBC practice advisors are most often asked about. Effective April 1, 2026, the Health Professions and Occupations Act (HPOA), new CHCPBC bylaws, and the harmonized Ethics and Practice Standards introduced changes to record content, retention periods, transfer rules, and allowable fees for producing records. While there are some changes that may be new requirements for some professions, there are also other professions whose requirements may not have changed significantly. As with all regulatory requirements, members of each healthcare profession should familiarize themselves with the HPOA, College bylaws, and the Ethics and Practice Standards that were enacted on April 1, 2026, in order to identify changes between legacy and current regulation and be able to apply these requirements in practice.
Below are several of the key changes to review and consider as you incorporate them into your practice.
Patient consent
A core part of patient care is obtaining consent to collect personal information and provide health services. Consent to obtain personal information must be confirmed with the patient and that consent must be documented in the patient record. In addition, healthcare professionals may collect sufficient information that relates to the specific health service being proposed. For example, the patient may consent to collection of information about their health condition but not about their employer.
Record retention requirements
Patient record retention requirements have also changed significantly for some professions. Records for patients who were first seen on or after they turned 19 years of age must now be kept for at least 16 years after their last visit. For minors, records must be kept until the patient turns 35 (16 years after the patient turns 19). The 16-year retention period also applies to patients who are deceased, as the retention period remains the same.
Custodianship
Some legacy colleges had specific rules about who could serve as custodian of patient records. Those rules are now standardized and expanded, allowing records to be transferred to any regulated healthcare professional, not just one in the same profession. Wherever possible, healthcare professionals should give current patients advance written notice explaining how they can continue to access their records if they are transferred to another provider, organization, or records management service. In addition, healthcare professionals must notify CHCPBC of the new record location within 30 business days by emailing licensure@chcpbc.org with the subject line: [Insert Profession] – Location of Records.
Fees for records
Patients and healthcare professionals often ask whether fees may be charged for producing or transferring copies of patient records. From a Standards perspective, the answer is that fees may be charged provided the fees are disclosed in advance and are reasonable. The Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) also contains additional information about charging fees for providing copies of patient records. If healthcare professionals have additional questions about PIPA, they may want to reach out to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) for British Columbia, which is the organization that receives and responds to questions about privacy legislation.
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About the Practice Support service
CHCPBC has profession-specific Practice Advisors for each of the nine professions the College regulates. Questions that are sent by licensees will be answered by a Practice Advisor in the same profession. Submissions are treated confidentially.
Our practice advisors provide guidance on how regulation may be interpreted and can be implemented in practice. The goal is to assist licensees to find solutions to their practice issues given the complexity of healthcare delivery today.
Anyone – licensees or members of the public – with a question about CHCPBC’s expectations for safe, ethical and quality practice is welcome to contact our Practice Support team.
