Message Retention

The Message retention period setting specifies the duration of time that message content is preserved on the VST server before being purged. The purge mechanism preserves the message metadata (such as subject and recipient list) but removes message content permanently; message content cannot be recovered once the purge has occurred.

The message retention period determines how long message content persists in the VST database. Message retention is a security feature that allows an organization to remove potentially sensitive message content on a regular schedule. In many cases this is not necessary, because the message expiration setting will remove messages from the clients. By default, the message retention period is null and messages are preserved indefinitely.

When a message reaches the end of its retention period, it is purged from the VST database at the time the next scheduled purge mechanism runs (currently once per day at 2:00 AM Eastern Time). By default, the message retention period is null, and messages are never purged.

The message retention period for a practice or hospital is determined by the organization's administrator. When users of two or more organizations are engaged in a conversation, the retention period for all messages in the conversation is determined by the message retention period of the organization that initiated the conversation.