Study on situation of medical filings and the effect of environmental factors on the medical files kept in the mazandaran university of medical sciences affiliated hospitals in 2001

Background and There are environmental conditions such as, chemical, biological, physical and unusual factors destroying medical records in the filing rooms. Ïmportunce of keeping medical records, made the researchers to have a study on the files kept in mazandaran province hospitals, regarding climatic conditions, shelf place, file folders, and keeping conditions, and also in order to increase durability of the files. Âll of the filing rooms (20 rooms) of the educational and non educational hospitals in mazandaran province were selected for study, this research was done in descriptive method. Data were collected in questionnaire through filling of the designed questions by referring of the researchers to the filing rooms under study and measuring of the climatic conditions etc. This study showed that, physical, chemical, biological and unuasual factors reduce durability of the files by 75%, 61.6%, 61.2% and 38.3% respectively. The most important thing to mention is that, at the time of files study, humidity of the places was more than 60% which is above the normal rate Çonclusion: Çonsidering the climatic conditions of the region and presence of unsuitable filing rooms, that is, high level of humidity, temperature and presence of dust which cause deterioration of files and creating suitable conditions for growing of bacteria and fungi. Therefore providing a proper place for files in order to control the above mentioned destructive agents, installation of thermometer, hygrometer and air conditioning of the rooms, cleaning of the files at least twice a year, and disinfection are necessary. Âlso light is known as a destructive agent, therefore, providing direct and indirect lights in order to increase the durability of the files considering the standard measures is essential. Âlso, security measures in case of emergency such as, firing are necessary. Based on the findings of this study and the problems present on the traditional method of keeping medical records, beneficiency from e-mail medical recording and the modern fileing systems are necessary.