P-86 Improving the Organization of Paper-Based Medical Records at a Primary Care Clinic in Guyana: A Quality Improvement Project
Author(s):
S Alleyne , F Knights
Type Of Study:
- Experimental or Intervention Study
Year of Presentation:
2025
Objective: To reduce time taken by healthcare staff at Festival City Polyclinic to retrieve and access information from
paper-based medical records of patients with chronic diseases by 50% over three months.
Methods: This quality improvement study using the Model for Improvement approach and two Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles was conducted over 12 weeks. A Fishbone analysis identified the main causes of medical record disorganization. Time measurements were taken at baseline and postintervention stages to assess the time needed to retrieve records and locate specific information. A physician satisfaction survey was also conducted. Interventions included arranging records chronologically, adding color-coded stickers to cover pages, and creating posters to remind staff of the changes.
Results: There was 85% reduction in the time taken to retrieve medical records and 62% or more reduction (P<0.05) in the time taken to locate specific information in each record, after the interventions. This exceeded the project’s aim of reducing both time measures by 50%.
Conclusions: This project provided evidence that simple interventions can be used to reduce the time taken to access patient information, by organizing medical records. Other resource-limited primary care facilities, without a computerized medical record system, may use similar simple interventions to organize paper-based medical records.