Employee who is legally responsible and has charge and custody of the care and handling for all the patient’s medical records in a hospital facility or physician’s medical practice. Electronically stored information has four levels of custodianship such as primary or direct custodian (e.g., staff nurse), data owner or steward (e.g., radiologist, pathologist, accountant), business associate and third party (e.g., claims clearinghouse, Internet service provider), and official record and system custodian (e.g., health information management department). Also called custodian.