Indian retention rules vary by specialty and case type. Default to "longer than the law requires" — storage is cheap and the cost of being short is asymmetric.
Default retention windows
| Practice type | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| General OPD | 3 years | 7 years |
| Paediatrics | Until age 21 | Until age 25 |
| Surgical / procedural | 5 years | 10 years |
| Medico-legal cases | Indefinite | Indefinite |
| Obstetrics (mother + child) | 25 years | 25 years |
What "retention" requires
- The full prescription PDF, not just a summary.
- Visit-level metadata: date, time, doctor, location.
- An audit log of accesses to the record.
- The ability to retrieve and print on demand.
Why digital retention beats paper
- Survives floods, fires, rodents, ink fade.
- Searchable in seconds vs hours.
- Tamper-evident with audit logs.
- Backed up off-site.
Vaidya OS retains all prescription PDFs indefinitely with full audit logs and one-click retrieval. Storage is included in the ₹999/month plan.