Question

What is the medical record numbering and filing system? What are the three types of record filing systems in the health field and how are they filed? Describe the filing medical records procedures. Do you think that the numbering and filing is the best system for hospitals today? Why?

Answer 1

Medical record numbering refers to the serial number that which was given to the patient when he/she came to regular check-up to healthcare. Patients records will be filled according to the serial number allocated to him/her. This number may vary for the patient if he/she according to their visits. Filling system refers to patient records are filled according to their name, discharge details and diagnosis codes.Medical filing systems are of three types

1) Straight or consecutive

2) reverse order

3) middle digits

Straight or consecutive system consists of patients details arranged in the order of their numbers.

Reverse order system consists of patients details arranged in the order of their joining dates which are last digits of the number assigned to them.

Middle digit system consists of patients details arranged in the order of the digits present in the middle of the number assigned to them.

Normally six digits are assigned to the patient.

Filing and numbering records is very important for healthcare organizations. Because details of every patient is very specific and cannot be mixed with others' information, this method gives very easy way to organize the data. It gives information about the number of patients visited. Any patient can easily obtain the information if he already visited the clinic once before. This mitigates the effort required for the doctors to get to know the patient