We are glad to see you're interested in having the Federation of State Medical Boards retain your program's resident records.

We contacted ACGME in January 2002 with concerns that programs are closing and the resident records are often difficult to locate or are destroyed after a certain number of years. The Federation Credentials Verification Service (FCVS), a division of the Federation of State Medical Boards, performs credentialing verification for physicians seeking licensure.  Once FCVS has collected the credentials of a physician, those records are permanently maintained and stored so the physician is able to access them whenever he or she wishes. Both the physician and we become frustrated when his or her residency records are unobtainable and therefore, he or she cannot get licensed.  FCVS asked ACGME if we could work together so this type of thing does not happen in the future; and they agreed to allow us to post our message regarding records retention on their Web site. Visit their Web site,  then select "Resident Information" and scroll down to "Program Closure."

The Federation of State Medical Boards has been in existence for more than 90 years.  One of the largest functions the Federation performs is data retention and dissemination for our member state medical and osteopathic boards.  It just seemed natural that our organization could retain the resident's records for future use.

Our proposal is to accept the records from your program at no charge (other than your cost to ship the records to us).  We will then permanently and safely store those records indefinitely. We will then release only pertinent information to entities that the physician has provided us with authorization to do so either directly or through an authorization release form he/she has signed with the querying entity.

Procedures to have your records sent to the Federation

FAQ's