Designing a manual archival records storage and retrieval system for Makerere University Hospital

Abstract

The aim of this study was to design a manual storage and retrieval system for archival records of Makerere University Hospital. The objectives of the study were to; find out the archival records that are generated and kept by Makerere university hospital, examine the existing archival records storage and retrieval system at Makerere university hospital, identify the challenges with the existing archival records storage and retrieval systems for Makerere university hospital ,identify the requirements necessary for designing an ideal archival records storage and retrieval system for Makerere university hospital, design an ideal manual archival records storage and retrieval management system for Makerere university hospital. This study applied a qualitative research approach. The study population was comprised of male and female staff, the records managers, assistant records managers, volunteers of the Makerere University Hospital who work in the records department, Kampala District. The research employed a non-probability sampling technique called purposive sampling. The sample size of this study was obtained by using Krejcie and Morgan’s 1970 table for sample determination. Data in this study was collected using an interview guide. An interview guide is simply a list of the topics that you plan on covering in the interview with the questions that you want to answer under each topic. The qualitative data was collected and made into text for such as field notes and transcripts Study results revealed that there are a number of archival records that generated and kept at Makerere University Hospital and these include; medical archives, laboratory results, scan reports, clinical notes, patient profiles, administrative archives, meeting minutes, correspondences, call logs, a strategic plan, a memorandum and financial accounting furthermore, according to the study results, the existing archival and records storage and retrieval system at Makerere University hospital is a paper based system. The archival records are in paper form or physical archival records that can be touched and can take up physical space. They are piled up in the stores without a definite order making retrieval of the archives difficult. These archival records include; clinical notes, administrative archives, laboratory results, meeting minutes, student medical archival records, scan archival records, diagnostic and prescription notes, patient profiles, correspondences, call logs, strategic plans, memorandum and financial archival records. The study concluded that the requirements for a better archival and records storage and retrieval system at Makerere University hospital are simplicity, accuracy, economy and usefulness. The study recommends that the organization to adopt the manual and the database that will help in storage and fast retrieval of archives as well as there is need for an electronic system for archival records storage and retrieval so as to solve the challenge of limited space since the archive will not be paper based and it will also make it easy to manage, store and retrieve easily.