|
|||
|
PLEASE NOTE: Secure your original microfilms and microfiche jackets in a secured, climate-controlled vault or safe, and use your DUPLICATE set for the working file. We're frequently amazed at how many clients we visit for the first time are USING THE ORIGINALS and have locked up the DUPLICATE SET!! PLEASE, do not use the originals; these are your "negatives", and easily abused - and destroyed!! And DO NOT store BOTH sets together!! That's a disaster ready to happen! |
Recordkeeping and Archiving (Our Professional Opinion)
Microfilming is becoming a diminishing technology, and the demand for film viewing/printing equipment is reducing. Several manufacturers have discontinued many of their models; some altogether. Those still being produced are becoming increasing more expensive because of the decrease in sales. Maintenance and upkeep is becoming more expensive, as parts and supplies become more difficult to find, and transportation costs are also increasing. Electronic records are becoming more popular and easier to produce, communicate via email and electronic fax, and CD-R more and more popular as a safe means of storing, backing up and archiving vital records and data.
If properly stored and handled, CD-R files should be good for at least 5 years; the better media manufacturers are espousing 100 years, but that is the life of the MEDIA, not necessarily the data recorded on them! Lin-Cum suggests re-writing the CDs every 5 years, to perpetuate the records' archival life.
Many states have established 10 years as the time to re-write the records stored on CDs to a new set of media and "start the clock" for another 10 years, if they have not been migrated to a new technology/media in the meantime. The Florida State Legislature accepted optical disk as an archival solution in 1997, as long as they are recopied every 10 years; (Florida State Legislature ruling as reported in Imaging Magazine, October 1997). Arizona State Supreme Court has also approved procedural use of CD/OD for archiving court files with similar recopying or technology migration, whichever comes first. LIN-CUM participated in reviewing and inputting to the Arizona State Supreme Court standards and procedures, adopted in 1998; see the adopted procedures at (http://www.supreme.state.az.us/cot/Standards/
|
||
|
From The Arizona Republic, Wed., Dec. 10, 2008: Arizonas disaster readiness rated low Arizona is tied for last among U.S. states in disaster preparedness, according to an annual report released Tuesday by two non-profit, health-advocacy groups. (Trust for Americas Health, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation).
|
|||
|
Health Systems converting to electronic records.
As stated in The Arizona Republic, Valley & Sun, Dec.11, 2008 article "Health System Upgrade Planned", converting to an electronic records system as much as possible "will improve patient safety, help physicians better manage patient information and make it easier to share information with doctors, nurses and other staff". This plan also applies to OTHER enterprises; private, corporate and governmental. It will also prevent the widespread record-keeping problems of misfiling, unauthorized alteration, arson, espionage, employee misuse and other problems with vulnerable records. And the increased cost-effectiveness will surprise you!
|
|||
|
|
|||