Data retention and deletion policy enforcement

Purpose

1.1. Automate enforcement of healthcare data retention and deletion policies to meet regulatory, legal, and operational requirements.
1.2. Ensure records are held for specified periods, then automatedly deleted, anonymized, or archived in compliance with emergency care regulations.
1.3. Automate logs of access, deletion, and retention events for auditability and regulatory evidence.
1.4. Centralize policy management to reduce manual labor, cybersecurity risk, and avoid fines for non-compliance.
1.5. Automate communication and validation with internal and external systems handling emergency care data.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. Reaching pre-set data retention period (e.g., 7 years after discharge).
2.2. Receipt of specific deletion or anonymization requests (e.g., patient opt-out, regulatory request).
2.3. Routine system sweeps (e.g., monthly automated checks).
2.4. Emergency protocols—mass deletion during incident response.
2.5. Scheduled audits or compliance reviews trigger automation of reporting and data validation.

Platform Variants

3.1. AWS S3
• Feature/Setting: S3 Lifecycle Policies
• Configure Lifecycle Rule to automate object expiration and deletion using JSON configuration.

3.2. Microsoft Azure Blob Storage
• Feature/Setting: Blob Lifecycle Management
• Set up automation with rules in Storage Account to delete blobs after specified periods.

3.3. Google Cloud Storage
• Feature/Setting: Object Lifecycle Management
• Use automated rules for data retention, automated deletion, or archival.

3.4. MongoDB Atlas
• Feature/Setting: TTL (Time-To-Live) Indexes
• Configure TTL index to automate document expiration and automatedly remove expired patient records.

3.5. PostgreSQL
• Feature/Setting: Scheduled Procedures (pg_cron/Cron jobs)
• Automate with periodic SQL DELETE or archive statements by retention policy.

3.6. Salesforce Health Cloud
• Feature/Setting: Custom Automation (Process Builder/Flow)
• Automate deletion of case records after retention expires using scheduled flows.

3.7. ServiceNow
• Feature/Setting: Data Retention Policies
• Configure automated retention schedules under Security Operations for record purging.

3.8. SAP
• Feature/Setting: ILM (Information Lifecycle Management)
• Automate data archiving and destruction based on regulatory rules.

3.9. Box
• Feature/Setting: Retention Policies
• Automate folder/file deletion or retention enforcement with admin settings.

3.10. Dropbox Business
• Feature/Setting: Data Governance API
• Use API to automate removal or retention of files.

3.11. Egnyte
• Feature/Setting: Content Lifecycle Automation
• Automate file moves and deletion through policy-driven automation.

3.12. Google Workspace
• Feature/Setting: Vault Retention Rules
• Automate enforcement of retention, deletion, and expunge policies for Gmail/Drive.

3.13. Microsoft 365 Compliance Center
• Feature/Setting: Information Governance – Retention Policies
• Automate data lifecycle management in Exchange, SharePoint, Teams.

3.14. Okta
• Feature/Setting: User Lifecycle API
• Automate deletion and anonymization of user data upon retention expiry.

3.15. Zendesk
• Feature/Setting: Data Retention Settings
• Automate deletion of tickets and attachments after elapsed periods.

3.16. Workday
• Feature/Setting: Data Retention & Purge Rules
• Automate employee and operational data deletion via scheduled automation.

3.17. Epic Systems
• Feature/Setting: Automated Record Purge
• Configure automated record lifecycles for medical documentation.

3.18. Cerner
• Feature/Setting: Data Retention and Removal Automation
• Automate patient data retention/erasure per configurable workflow.

3.19. Atlassian Confluence
• Feature/Setting: Data Retention Policies (Marketplace Plugin/APIs)
• Automate page and attachment purges with scheduled automators.

3.20. Smartsheet
• Feature/Setting: Automated Workflows
• Build automations for deleting or archiving rows/files after retention expiration.

3.21. NetSuite
• Feature/Setting: Scripted Data Retention Automations
• Use SuiteScript to trigger data deletion events.

Benefits

4.1. Automates compliance with emergency care data regulations, minimizing legal risks.
4.2. Automates routine and exception-based deletion tasks, reducing manual errors.
4.3. Automates audit logging, supporting forensic and compliance reviews.
4.4. Automates response to right-to-erasure and retention expiry requests.
4.5. Enables automatable, cross-system enforcement, securing all endpoints equally.
4.6. Reinforces trust with auditable, automatedly enforced transparency for stakeholders.