What happens to patient records when I sell my practice?

Selling a practice is not the same as selling equipment or a customer list, because patient records carry ongoing obligations that follow the information itself rather than whoever currently possesses it. Understanding the actual sequence — not just the end state — helps a selling practitioner see where their own responsibility continues well past closing day.

Notice comes before custody actually changes

Before records move to a new custodian, patients are generally entitled to be told the change is happening and given a reasonable opportunity to request their file be sent somewhere else instead of following the sale, which means custody of the full patient base does not transfer as one bulk action on closing day — it transfers patient by patient, as notice periods run and, in some cases, as individual requests are processed.

Your own professional obligation doesn’t end when the files move

This is the part sellers most often underestimate: the practitioner’s own duty to their regulatory college around record-keeping and patient information is personal to them, and selling the practice or handing over custody of the files to a buyer does not automatically discharge that obligation. A departing practitioner can remain answerable to their college for how records were kept and handled, including for patients who were never reached during the transition, well after someone else is holding the actual files.

The records software itself is a separate transfer question

Beyond the data, the practice-management or EMR system storing those records is its own asset, with its own licence terms, and it is a mistake to assume records are transferable just because the software they live in continues running under new ownership. A buyer needs to confirm whether the existing software licence permits a change of ownership at all, whether historical data can actually be exported into a system the buyer intends to use instead, and who is responsible if a records-migration error loses or corrupts information partway through the switch.