Case files

[loose files introduced for inpatient records between 1880 & 1920] “However, inpatient records continued to be bound by year so that the protection and integrity of the fixed format volumes were continued in the new system. . . . The problem of binding documents of diverse size was responsible, in part, for a drive to develop new standards for records to replace those which had been automatically conferred by the format of the journals and casebooks. . . . once loose files were adopted, the lack of a standardized size for forms caused problems. Documents of various sizes were difficult to keep in place within the file, easy to loose when the file was in transit, and impossible to bind without a great deal of labor to ensure their proper place and positioning. Printed forms of the same size were introduced and fully employed individual medical record offices to achieve uniformity in recording and filing which was now undertaken by many people” (Craig II, 28).