Health Information Management Journal

Flinders Medical Centre (FMC) in South Australia has a storage problem. The space available for filing existing medical records is full, while the demand for additional storage continues its linear growth. The hospital plans to use this “crisis” as an opportunity to review the entire basis for the management of the medical record and pilot an optical disk system as a precursor to paperless medical records. There are many constraints to this objective, but many advantages if the scheme proves successful. Michael describes the events which precipitated this project and outlines the steps in FMC's planned progression to a paperless record. (AMRJ, 1989, 19(4), 149–154).

In this paper, the author looks at the arguments for and against placing modern medical records in public archival facilities. She considers the various ethical, legal and practical issues involved in archiving patients' records with the intention of making them available for public access after seventy-five years from the date of last contact of the patient with the hospital or sooner under certain specified circumstances. The range of sampling and selection techniques available for reducing the volume of patient records to be retained is also discussed. Citing the experience of the Public Record Office Victoria, the author concludes that it is justifiable to breach confidentiality by placing modern medical records in public archives but that it will be many years before an assessment can be made of the appropriateness or otherwise of placing modern hospital records in public archives and whether it proves to be worth the effort. (AMRJ, 1989,19(4), 155–161).

This article is reprinted with permission from the IMC Journal, 25(3), 1989 – a publication of the International Information Management Congress.