Two-Year Email Retention Limit Coming December 5

IS Communications All Caregivers

Caregivers have three months left to save old emails they need to keep. Starting December 5, Outlook emails older than two years will be automatically deleted on a rolling basis. As part of this, we are phasing out the ability for caregivers to create and connect personal storage table (.pst or PST) files to Outlook, which means the existing ones you have can no longer be used.

Action required by December 5

  • Review emails and PST files to determine if you need to retain emails or any attachments.
  • Save those items to OneDrive or SharePoint.
  • If your team or department is currently under regulatory requirement that emails must be kept in its original format, please review the email retention FAQ and complete the exemption process. Legal holds are managed by the Department of Legal Affairs and unaffected by this two-year retention schedule.

Clarifications

Questions have arisen about potential impacts on records needing to be kept longer than two years in accordance with applicable legal requirements and Providence policy. To clarify:

  • This retention change applies only to Outlook and the emails stored there.
  • All original data sources of email file attachments, such as Excel files saved on a system drive, are not impacted.
  • Email generally should not be used as a source of truth, legal record or permanent record. Email is a business communication tool and Outlook is not a record retention tool and it must not be utilized as a document repository.
  • Email does not need to be saved as a record unless required to maintain evidence the message was sent, including the timing and recipient. In addition, a caregiver’s email account subject to a litigation hold will be exempted from the new email retention limit while the legal hold is effective. 
  • If an email does need to be retained as an official record for more than two years, the alternative solution is to convert and save it as a PDF or .MSG file format and store it in a Providence-authorized document repository, such as OneDrive or SharePoint.
  • The email retention exemption process solely applies for email retention in Outlook and does not impact any other type of records.

This new two-year email retention limit is more generous compared to our peers in the healthcare industry. For example, multiple peer organizations only allow their caregivers to keep up to one year of emails. Our email retention limit is an important component of Providence’s efforts to reduce both cyber and legal risk, thereby protecting patients and our family of organizations.

Watch to learn more

In this two-minute video, Chief Information Security Officer Adam Zoller explains the importance of these changes.

More info and resources 

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