Medical records preservation strategies in improving healthcare service providers’ access to patients’ medical histories in the Limpopo hospitals,South Africa

Abstract

Preservation of medical histories records is very crucial to patients’ healthcare quality since when preservation is not being discharged properly; medical histories records are either inaccessible or difficult to access, which has a detrimental effect on the healthcare services provided to patients. The purpose of the study was to investigate strategies for the preservation of medical records and to recommend a framework that healthcare institutions may use to ensure that they have their patients’ medical records/histories at their fingertips (readily available). Stratified random sampling was used in the study to collect questionnaire data from records management officials and heads of clinical, nursing and records management units at 40 state hospitals in the province of Limpopo in South Africa. The data was augmented with observation, system analysis and document analysis. The study revealed that the preservation of medical records in public healthcare institutions in Limpopo was very chaotic, to the extent that access to patients’ medical histories was not always a possibility. Healthcare institutions need a framework for medical records preservation throughout the process of healthcare service delivery, to avoid chaotic healthcare service that eventually hamper health of the patients. The study provided a generic framework that may be localised as a centre of benchmark for healthcare institutions to suit their own environmental needs.

Keywords

Healthcare institutions healthcare services Limpopo province medical history medical information Medical records public sector records preservation South Africa

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