2025-2026 Updates
The Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) now has an online portal to submit open records requests. If you are an individual or a private or public agency (e.g. mental health, private practice, etc.) please do not provide personally identifiable information of yourself or clients directly to Kentucky Historic Institutions. We are a history website. Kentucky Historic Institutions does not have or provide protected health information. This must be done via an open records request.
CHFS Online Portal
Note: you will have to register (for free) to submit requests. There may be fees associated with requesting records. The CHFS Online Portal is no way related to Kentucky Historic Institutions and we do not have any control over decisions, fees, or wait times.
Please visit the Cabinet for Health and Family Services Open Records Center to submit an open records request. Click on “Submit a Records Request,” then scroll down and select “Department for Behavioral Health Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities.”
Include as much information as possible. You can explore our website as we have some records available online. If you find the person you’re looking for and there’s a patient or inmate number, please include this. There is an option to upload documentation, if you have a death certificate available this may help the process. Do not forget to include the facility name (even if it is no longer in operation) and that the records request is for historical records more than 50 years old. You must meet requirements outlined in KRS 61.872(3).
Appeals
If your request is denied you can appeal. Submit appeals to OAGAppeals@ky.gov. Please include a copy of the original written request for the records and the agency’s denial letter or response if one was provided. Include an explanation of the issue.
Effective June 29, 2021, only “residents of the Commonwealth” may request to inspect public records. KRS 61.872(3). “Residents of the Commonwealth” include individuals residing in the Commonwealth, domestic business entities with a location in the Commonwealth, foreign business entities registered with the Kentucky Secretary of State, individuals that are employed and are working at a location in the Commonwealth, and any individual or business entity representing one of these residents. KRS 61.870(10). “News-gathering organizations,” which are specifically defined in KRS 189.635(8)(b), may also request to inspect public records under the Act.
FOR MORE INFORMATION REGARDING THIS KENTUCKY REVISED STATUTE, PLEASE CLICK HERE
Information You Must Know Before Submitting an Open Records Request
- The year (and sometimes month) that the individual was discharged or passed away from the facility and the name of the facility. Important: census information is not sufficient in locating medical records. Many of the historical records are also filed as “white” or “colored.”
- The person must have been deceased at least fifty (50) years before the record can be released per HIPPA Law (45 CFR 160.103). You may be required to verify death via death certificate, newspaper obituary, FindAGrave website, etc.
- If person has not been deceased for at least fifty (50) years you may receive permission from the individual estate executor, administrator or person with authority under KY law per 45 CFR 164.502.
- If fifty (50) years has not passed and executor or administrator is decreased, you may probate their medical records in the county the facility was in, this usually requires a lawyer and fees.
Historical Records that are Available
| Facility Name | Records Starting Year(s) |
| Central State Hospital (Lakeland/Louisville) Note: The majority of these records are filed by the year they were discharged/deceased, then by an identification number assigned by the hospital. If you do not know the month/year they were admitted, BHDID may not be able to locate the record. Records for the Children’s Treatment Center are at CSH from 1980-1996 and have since been destroyed. | 1873 |
| Eastern State Hospital (Lexington) | 1824 |
| Frankfort State Hospital and School (Frankfort School for the Feeble-Minded) | 1876 |
| Kentucky State Hospital (Danville) Note: Records from 1942-1945 belong to the U.S. Army. Danville Youth Records from 1978-1983 belong to Protection and Permanency. Records from 1983-Current belong to the Kentucky Department of Corrections; contact Northpoint at 859-239-7012. | 1946-1977 |
| Western State Hospital (Hopkinsville) | 1854 |
Records that are Not Available Through BHDID
Orphanage/Adoption Records: These records are sealed and must have a court order to obtain these records, even if it is your own record. Contact Protection and Permanency at 502-564-3834. If the orphanage was owned by a church or private organization, Protection and Permanency will NOT have these records.
Tuberculosis Hospital Records: Contact the Kentucky Department of Public Health at: 502-564-3970.
Kentucky Historic Institutions 