Examination Of filing systems used at St. Francis Hospital Nsambya Homecare Department

Abstract

The study was conducted with the aim of examining the filing systems used, a case study of St Francis hospital Nsambya Homecare department (NHC). The main objective of NHC is to provide with love holistic home based care quality services to HIV/AIDS infected and affected persons that delight them, their families and their communities. The specific objectives of the study were to identify various types of records generated and kept and their formats of existence, to find out the filing systems used in place, to identify the challenges faced with the filing systems at NHC and lastly, to suggest solutions that can improve the filing systems at the health facility. Adequate Literature review was collected by the researcher which involved arguments from various scholars about the research topic, qualitative research design was used and it had the following collection tools observation guide, document review guide, and interview guide that enabled the researcher to acquire the necessary data she required. Basing on the findings, results obtained through interview, observation and document review presented the different categories of records and their formats held at NHC, filing systems, file storage equipment and lastly, the problem faced with the filling systems which involved understaffing, limited storage space and storage equipment, rapid accumulation of records volume over time, misplacement of files by users among others. Therefore, the proposed solutions to the problems included provision of more storage facilities, training and sensitization of all staffs about the significance of the filling systems, conducting regular quality control in the filling systems, enlarging the records storage space, offsite storage and recruiting more records management staff which were discussed as solutions in the recommendation. In conclusion, NHC as an organization mentioned the major challenge of under staffing in the records department yet there was a wide variety of activities that required enough skilled manpower. The recommendations the researcher came up with included provision of more storage facilities, training and sensitization of all staffs, regular data quality control, enlarging the records storage space and recruiting more records management staff.