When are outpatient records for nonmilitary, dependents, and retired military members retired?

• A. End of fiscal year
• B. Semiannually
• C. Quarterly
• D. End of calendar year

Answer: (D)

The concept tested here is how outpatient medical records are recycled based on patient category. For nonmilitary individuals, dependents, and retired service members, the retirement of their outpatient records occurs at the end of the calendar year. This year-end cut-off creates a predictable, single point in time to move records into inactive storage, which aligns with calendar-year processing, reporting, and annual audits. It keeps the workflow stable and avoids mid-year transitions that would complicate file management.

End of fiscal year would occur on a different date (the fiscal year), which isn’t used for this category. Semiannual or quarterly retirements don’t fit the standard lifecycle policy, as they would fragment the retirement process rather than consolidate it into a single annual event.