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hospital patient records



Dear Colleagues,
 
I have been approached regarding patient records of our institution from 1900-1970.  Administration, including the Clinical Information Director,  has researched the length of retention required, etc. They have concluded that they would like to discard patient records from 1900-1970. Now, our patient records from 1847-1899 are have been retained, and will continue to be.  One of our Library Committee members wanted to know if we could somehow preserve (digitize) these records for scholarly research purposes.  Of course, someone (hmmm...me) would have to write a grant to secure funding for this project. Space is, as usual, the primary consideration.  Does anyone have any thoughts/experience about/with this? 
 
As background information, we are a private psychiatric hospital, chartered in 1844.  I am the Director of Library Services.  Administration is very interested in making our Archival Collection (we have a "library" and an "archival library") electronically accessible.  I've just completed the course offered in "Administration of Archives, Manuscript, and Special Collections" at URI.  It has been suggested that I find grant funding for this project.  It seems that we really need to establish an official hospital archives....
 
Ruthann Gildea, MLIS
Butler Hospital
Providence, RI