Health record and recording the services provided in centers implementing rural family physician and insurance program in Northern provinces of Iran

One of the duties of family physician is to form health records and recording the provided services. The present study was conducted to evaluate health records in family physician program in Northern Province of Iran. This cross-sectional study was carried out in 2011. 139 of centers implementing family physician program in three provinces of Golestan, Mazandaran and Gilan were selected through systematic random sampling as the study samples, and recording the performance of all family physicians was evaluated. For data collection, a researcher-made questionnaire was used, the validity and reliability of which were confirmed. Data were analyzed by SPSS18 at p<0.05 as the significant level. Out of the 189 family physicians studied, the profile of patients referred to the second level and the associated results were recorded in referral record forms completely by 43 physicians. Out of 1890 families studied, 1559 were reported with health records, among which 892 were filled out completely. Out of 5869 families studied, 4229 patients were examined at least once by their family physician during the periodic examination; 1919, patients were found with complete records respectively. There was a significant difference between rates record of referral to a specialist registered in the Northern Province of Iran (P=0.001). The quality and quantity of health record formation as well as the records of services provided have not been according to the expectations and appropriate interventions are therefore needed in this regard.