TITLE 12. HEALTH
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH
Initial Agency Notice
Title of Regulation: 12VAC5-410. Regulations for the Licensure of Hospitals in Virginia.
Statutory Authority: §§ 32.1-12 and 32.1-127 of the Code of Virginia.
Name of Petitioner: Cristen Russell.
Nature of Petitioner's Request: The petitioner requests the State Board of Health to consider whether a childhood medical record should be permitted to be destroyed simply because a patient has reached a particular age when that information may remain medically relevant for the remainder of that person's life.
There is a substantial difference between a medical record being old and a medical record being medically obsolete. Advances in genetics, metabolic medicine, neurology, immunology, rheumatology, oncology, infectious disease, and other fields continue to reveal the importance of historical clinical information that may previously have appeared nonspecific or unexplained.
Preserving childhood medical records for a longer, defined period would protect the ability of patients to access their own medical histories, support continuity of care, improve the availability of longitudinal information for future diagnosis, and preserve information that may become medically significant only after scientific knowledge has advanced.
For these reasons, the petitioner requests that the board reconsider the current minimum retention period for childhood medical records and adopt a longer, modernized standard.
Agency Plan for Disposition of Request: Pursuant to § 2.2-4007 of the Code of Virginia, the petition for rulemaking will be published in the Virginia Register of Regulations on October 19, 2026. The petition will also be published on the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall at www.townhall.virginia.gov. Public comment on the petition will be received from October 19, 2026, to November 9, 2026.
Following receipt of public comment and within 90 days of the end of the public comment period, a written decision to grant or deny the petition will be issued.
Public Comment Deadline: November 9, 2026.
Agency Contact: Jona Roka, Policy Analyst, Virginia Department of Health, 9960 Mayland Drive, Suite 401, Henrico, VA 23233, telephone (804) 875-1089, or email regulatorycomment@vdh.virginia.gov.
VA.R. Doc. No. PFR27-03; Filed September 29, 2026, 9:37 a.m.