Designing a records disaster management plan for Lubaga Hospital

Abstract

This project aimed at designing a records disaster management plan (RDMP) for Lubaga hospital to ensure security of the records and staff in case of a disaster. The project objectives were to; identify the types of disasters affecting records, examine possible causes of disasters, establish the effects of disasters on records management, and design the records disaster management plan for Lubaga hospital. The project targeted a population of 12 people and due to their small number, the entirety of the population size was treated as sample size and comprised of 04 Records staff, 06 Health workers and 02 Administrators all selected purposively. The project adopted a qualitative research design and used interviews and document review methods to collect data. The project identified: fire outbreaks, vandalism, water leakages, earthquakes, chemical spillage, theft of records and Equipment, floods and technological disasters as the man-made and natural disasters that affect or are likely to affect records and records management work at Lubaga hospital. The project attributed theses disaster occurrences to: congestion of premises limiting movement, storage space for records and increasing chances for internal accidents; heavy rain down pours; water leakages; power outage and system break-downs; pollution of air and water; staff negligence and careless conduct; biological causes such as molds, small mice and insects; and lack of strategic disaster control measures. Among the many effects that disasters pose or are likely to pose to records and records management work at Lubaga hospital, the project established that: disasters destroy vital records; impede access to records; compromise the security and integrity of records; cause temporary or even permanent withdrawal of services; destroy physical structures and equipment in the records facility; and depreciate the budgets allocated for records management. The project found out that disaster response and recovery at Lubaga hospital proceeded through a procedural process that starts with: sounding the emergency alarm to evacuate personnel, action from emergency response team, determining priorities of resumption of work, and cleaning and rehabilitating the affected areas. The project concluded that: the hospital experiences or is likely to experience disasters caused by both human and natural factors; the disaster occurrences affect the records and records management work just as they do to staff and other areas of the facility; the hospital lacks a strategic records disaster management plan to guide staff in managing disaster occurrences that may affect records and to ensure security of the records and staff in case of a disaster. The project recommended that: the records staff should be aware of the potential records disasters,their causes and effects and advise the hospital management about their occurrences and how to manage them; the records staff supported by the hospital management should implement a RDMP to ensure security of the records and staff in case of a disaster, the records staff should initiate review of the implemented RDMP to ensure it is up-to-date to address all potential disaster occurrences.