Substitute House Bill 1394 (H-1135.1) amends RCW 70.41.190 to require hospitals to retain and preserve all medical records for at least 26 years from the date each record was created. For purposes of this section a "medical record" is defined as all information collected at each unique visit. Records may be kept on paper, microfilm, electronic systems, or other media, and the 26-year requirement applies to records created before the section's effective date and to records created on or after that date, except for records that the hospital had already destroyed in compliance with the prior version of the law. The bill makes procedural changes by requiring the department (not named in the extracted facts) to adopt regulations that define the types of records and the information required to be retained; those retained records may be kept in photographic form pursuant to chapter 5.46 RCW. If a hospital ceases operations, it must immediately make preservation arrangements approved by the department. Hospitals remain subject to any other record retention requirements. The extracted text does not specify the bill's effective date, does not name the department referenced, and does not make clear whether or how all prior retention language is fully repealed. No enforcement mechanisms, penalties, or other amendments beyond those described are included in the provided facts.

If enacted, hospitals will have to keep every visit’s medical information for at least 26 years, which means they will face bigger, longer-term storage and preservation responsibilities and likely higher costs for space, media conversion, and record management. They can choose paper, microfilm, electronic, or other media, but must also make immediate, department-approved plans to preserve records if they stop operating, so hospitals will need more compliance planning and coordination with that agency. The biggest impacts fall on hospitals (more funding and operational responsibilities) and on the unnamed department (new rulemaking and oversight duties), while patients and minors will see their records retained longer. Important details are missing here: the bill’s effective date and which department is responsible are not specified, and it’s unclear whether the prior shorter retention rule is entirely replaced or how enforcement and penalties will work.