Retrieving physiotherapy patient records in an academic hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the process and feasibility of retrieving physiotherapy patient records in an academic hospital in Johannesburg in the Republic of South Africa. Multiple methods of data collection which included a walk-through observation of the whole health facility, aided by a researcher designed checklist, interviews and attempting to retrieve physiotherapy records were employed to evaluate the process of retrieving physiotherapy patient records and to determine the factors that influenced physiotherapy record retrieval. The percentage record retrieval was calculated by dividing the number of physiotherapy patient records that were actually retrieved by the total number of patients billed for receiving physiotherapy for one calendar month. The process of retrieving physiotherapy records was arduous and multi-faceted, requiring the use of multiple recording books, files and boxes to identify the names and hospital numbers of patients who attended physiotherapy. These data were required to retrieve the correct physiotherapy record. A final retrieval rate of 29.7% (n = 769) was achieved. The implications for the quality and planning of physiotherapy services, the legal and professional standing of the physiotherapy profession and implications for the academic functions in this hospital are discussed. The study concluded that the process of retrieving physiotherapy records in different sections of the selected hospital lacked uniformity