RHIT Data Content and Governance Practice Test 2025 – Complete Exam Prep

The action of a hospital purging patient records after a period of inactivity is accurately described as "purged." This term specifically indicates the process of permanently removing or deleting records from the system, typically to maintain compliance with data retention policies or to free up storage space. In health information management, purging is a critical practice to ensure that outdated or inactive records do not clutter the data repository and are disposed of in accordance with regulations and institutional guidelines.

Purging is different from archiving, which involves moving inactive records to a separate storage location but not deleting them. It also differs from terms like "inactivated" or "cleared," which imply that the records are still retained in some form, either as inactive (not currently in use but available) or simply processed away without permanent deletion. Therefore, purging is the most precise term for the complete removal of patient records.