Assessing the accessibility and use of health records

Abstract

The research was on assessing the accessibility and use of health records and was conducted at Bukuuku health center IV. The study objectives were to identify the types of health records kept at Bukuuku health center IV, to find out how health records are managed, to identify the challenges associated with access and use of health records, and to propose solutions to the challenges associated with access and use of health records in Bukuuku health center IV. To collect data, qualitative research design was used and where questionnaire, interview and observation were used to collect data during the research and these were used hand in hand with the data collection instruments such as questionnaire guide, interview guide and observation guide. The findings revealed that Bukuuku health center IV has various types of health records which in both paper and electronic formats, , it also discovered how health records are managed such as health records creation, health records storage, and health records access and use, the findings revealed the health records access control and procedures, the use of health records, it revealed that there are serious challenges associated with access and used of health records which include interference of political ways, poor storage of data, system failure, computer viruses, thieves, mishandling of records by users, untrained staff and network failure. Various recommendations were suggested to help in solving the challenges that associate with access and use of health records for example storage equipments, developing records management policy, staff training, records security, construction of an archive, automation of all health records and developing a records tracking system. The study concluded that Bukuuku health center IV still face some challenges which include network problem which affect the access of online information, limited storage space which affect good health records management.