WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY,JUNE 10,1907, PAGE 27 BGENERAIr-t'necpnS By BRIAN WINTER Whenever a patient enters the Whitby General Hospital, the health records department' keeps track of his progress from ad- mission to discharge. Like a reference library for doc- tors, the health records department serves as a central information service on each patient. If you are admitted as an in- patient for day surgery, rebabilitation services or the con- tinuing care unit, the admitting department makes up an admitting form for the patient and gives it to the health records department which uses it as a work sheet as long as the patient is in the hospital. Since 1974, Judy Barnes, health records administrator, has been in charge of the department. She came to Whitby General following a. one-year course for health record administrators at St. Michael's' Hospital in Toronto. Once her department receives the form, it prepares a central patient index card for the patient. This card contains identification in- formation: name, date or birth, ad- dress. next of kin, admission and HEALTH RECORDS ADMINISTRATOR JUDY BARNES discharge dates, patient service and the names of doctors involved. Each patient is assigned a unit chart number which will be the same every time he or she is admit- ted to the hospital. There is also a Road upgrading requested The Region of Durham has asked the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) to proceed with the upgrading of sections of Land bought at Palmerston The Durham Board 9f Education will purchase 12,609 sq. ft. of land on the west side of Palmerston Public School from the Town of Whitby at a cost of $12,000. The land is expected to give the students more playground space, says Jack Upton, manager of property, planning and transpor- tation for the board. No buniamg wui go on the land which is a 17-ft wide strip. Upton said the land is an old road allowance which the Town had con- sidered selling a year ago. The neighbors to the west side of the school bought half the land while the school board -bought the other half. Upton said there is no closing date onthe sale but the amount for the land was included in the 1987 budget. Youth arrested A 15-year-old Scarborough youth was arrested by police after they answered an alarm call at Deville Produce on Hwy 12 early Monday morning. Police say the male youth was arrested in the parking lot with goods from the store. He is charged with break, enter and theft. r WHITBY • FIRSTTIME ADVERTISED PRIVATELY • Asking $269,000 • FEATURES 4 bdrms., 4 baths, sunken living room, solarium kit., main floor laundry, central vac, intercom, electronic air cleaner, ceramic & hardwood floors and upgraded carpets throughout on fully landscaped oversized lot, heated pool, ex- tensive decking and more. 668-4104 - two roads in north Whitby to bring them up to standards. In a unanimous vote, council members sanctioned the works department recommendation that MTC upgrade and resurface High- way 12 between Rossland Road and Highway 7 in Brooklin and to im- prove and widen the associated in- tersections with Rossland and Taunton Roads.• A report to council said the existing Highway 12. - Taunton Rd. intersection provides an "unaccep- table level of service and requires continual high cost maintenance" and the upgrading of Highway 12 has been deferred by MTC for a number of years now. register number which changes each time the patient is admitted. Central patient index cards must be kept at least 50 years, even if the patient has expired, says Barnes. Whitby General has 17 years worth of these cards, nearly 30,000 in all. When the department runs out of space, the cards will be microfilmed. Reports by physicians, progress notes, histories, etc. are all typed by the staff in the records depar- tment and sent to the floor where the patient is located, to become part of his chart while in hospital. When the patient is discharged, all chart information is sent back to the department where it undergoes quantitative and qualitiative analysis. This means that the chart is set in order and the records staff make sure that all necessary documents are on the chart. They also make sure all written or dictated reports are signed, and the chart is com- plete. Each chart must meet the stan- dards set by the Canadian Council on Hospital Accreditation, the Public Hospitals Act and the bylaws, rules and regulations of . Whitby General. Wben a patient's chart is com- plete, it is filed in an automated filing machine called a Lektriever, which stores the charts in a com- pact space. There are presently 6,000 to 7,000 charts in the Lektriever, says Barnes. A patient's chart is kept for two years from the last discharge date,' and then it is microfilmed. Barnes bas senior bigh school or Durham College students do the pre-camera work for microfilming mostly in the summer and on nights .and weekends. The health records department at the Whitby General Hospital has two full-time medical transcrip- tionists, one permanent part-time health record technician/transcrip- tionist and one volunteer who does 10 to 12 hours of work with emergency department records.. Emergency department records are kept separately from the in- patient records if -there is no previous in-patient chart, and must be kept for at least 20 years if they are not microfilmed. The emergency records are tran- sferred to the patient's chart if he or she has previously been admit- ted to the hospital. Whitby General has a policy ap- proved by its board of governors which protects the confidentiality of a patient's records. A patient has to give his consent to allow his records to be seen by his lawyer in accident cases, Veterans' Affairs, Community and Social Services, Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, insurance companies, Workers' Compensation or a new physician, etc. A legal guardian can act for the patient if he is under 16 or unable to handle his own affairs. If a patient wants to see his own records, he must make a written request to the administrator Jim Miller who can arrange a meeting with the patient's doctor. Care is taken in such cases, says Barnes, that the patient has the medical terminology in the records ex- plained so thiere are no misunder- standings about records. "The hospital's duty is to protect the best interests of the patient without obstructing the process for which the information is needed, she says. FOR LEASE PROFESSIONAL SELF-CONTAINED SUITES 400 sq. ft. and up from $500.00 gross LOCATED AT 519 DUNDAS ST. E. AVAILABLE OCTOBER 1, 1987 ENQUIRIES JACK GRANT 668-4000 THECORPO THE TOWNC NOTICE OF INTENTION RATION OF OF WHITBY The Council of the Corporation of the Town of Whitby intends to pass by-laws to stop up, close and sell the untravelled public highway municipally known as Centre Street between the C.N.R. Right-of-Way and Victoria Street West (Regional Road 22), as shown below, designated as Part 2 on Plan of Survey 40R-9782. The Operations Committee of Council will meet on Monday, June 15, 1987, at 7:30 p.m. in Committee Room One of the Municipal Building, 575 Rossland Road East, Whitby, for the purpose of hearing any per- son who claims their land will be prejudicially affected by the by-laws. Any person wishing to meet with the Committee is asked to advise the Town Clerk accordingly no later than Thursday, June 11, 1987. Donald G.~McKay, Clerk The Corporation of the.Town of Whitby 575 Rossland Road East Whitby, Ontario LiN 2M8. Phone: (416) 668-5803 THE CORPORATION OF TH ETOWNOFWHITBY NOTICE OF INTENTION The Council of the Corporation of the Town of Whitby iniends to pass by-laws to stop up, close and sell the untravelled public highway municipally known as Galt Street, south of Victoria Street East (Regional Road 22), as shown below. v croa sraer A EAST The Operations Committee of Council will meet on Monday, June 15th, 1987, at 7:45 p.m. in Committee Room One of the Municipal Building, 575 Rossland Road East, Whitby, for the purpose of hearing any person who claims their land will be prejudicially affected by the by-laws. Any person wishing to meet with the Committee is asked to advise the Town Clerk accordingly no later than Thursday, June 11th, 1987. Donald G. McKay, Clerk The Corporation of the Town of Whitby. 575 Rossland Road East Whltby, Ontario L1N 2MB Phone: (416) 668-5803