If you are a record manager, protecting your documents is one of the most important responsibilities you have. However, disasters can happen like storms, floods, or pipe breakage that can all render water damage to your documents. Fortunately, technology has made it possible to restore wet documents from paper, to books, optical media, photographic media as well as microfilms such as x-rays.
Even if an x-ray has been completely soaked in water, you can still recover it from damage. But of course, there are certain factors that can affect how well the x-ray will be restored. The key is to be prepared for such incidents by knowing where to turn for help. In addition, you should establish a standard document recovery procedure that will ensure the x-rays are prepared correctly for a restoration service. Quick response is critical in saving x-ray documents so it is important to have a standard procedure in place.
You cannot afford to start building your recovery plan after a disaster has hit. Otherwise, it may be too late or you could do more damage to the x-rays. A recovery plan is also important since it is most likely that your office holds other types of documents and not just x-rays. When a disaster hits, it may be difficult for you to prioritize which of the documents you should try to recover without a pre-determined plan. And although, you may have established that the x-ray films are number one on your priority list, a standard procedure known to your personnel will increase the chances of restoring the x-rays.
The good thing is even if you only have a basic recovery plan, there are restoration professionals who can give you guidance. They will also be able to confirm if the x-rays can be restored or what kind of outcome you can expect.
Timely Action
Even though today’s technology advancements have allowed the restoration from damage of most types of records, documents and media, much of an x-ray film’s restorability still relies on timely and effective response to the damage. Basically, this response focuses on steps to stabilize the x-ray films and mitigate the water damage, which will allow for more options for restoration.
Control Room Conditions
To prevent further damage to wet x-rays, it is important to stabilize the environment where they are stored. This is particularly crucial for offices that hold a great quantity of x-ray records. Because they have more documents, they will require much longer time to pack out and, therefore, the room where the x-rays are kept has to have stable humidity and temperature all throughout the packing.
When room temperature and the level of humidity in the room increases, wet x-rays will degrade faster. In order to stabilize room conditions, the room temperature should be brought down to 70 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity level should be no more than 40 per cent. This may be difficult to accomplish if it the temperature outside is somewhere around 90 degrees Fahrenheit or if the flooding or whatever disaster has rendered a good part of your building wet. But do not worry. Most restoration service providers have equipment that can put room temperature and humidity under control in order to provide a stabilized environment for wet x-rays while you are packing them.
Choose a Contractor Ahead
If you have read this far, one thing that may have come to you is the importance of having professional restoration help. In fact, drying wet microfilms can only be done by professionals. Needless to say, it would be very wise for your office to pre-appoint a restoration service provider and include this process in the company's business continuity strategy. When you are in the middle of things post-disaster, decisions about document damage and recovery have to be made quickly and efficiently.
Things would be much easier for you if you already have a contractor chosen ahead. Not only will this save you the great trouble of looking for a restoration service provider during the most desperate time, it will also allow you more time to choose a qualified and experienced restoration contractor. If you end up trusting your records to an ill-qualified contractor, then the purpose of saving your documents would have been defeated.
Mitigate the Damage
Even if you already have a restoration contractor chosen well before a disaster happens, it is unlikely that the restoration professional will be able to work on the damaged x-rays just within minutes. You still need to pack them and send them to the contractor or wait for the contractor to pick them up. This means you or your personnel should be ready to take immediate action to control the damage to the x-ray films and prevent further damage.
In this case, you need to keep two things in mind: first, you need to preserve the special coating and labels on the x-ray films and second, you need to prevent the film from decomposing or degrading. Here are some things to remember when it comes to mitigating water damage to x-ray films:
1.)Ship or arrange the pick-up of wet x-ray films within the same day the damage happened. It cannot be stressed further that time is of the utmost importance in the successful restoration of wet x-rays and practically most water-damaged media. For wet x-rays microfilms, the best outcome is achieved when the process of separating the films and drying them starts within 48 hours of getting wet.
2.)Do not allow x-ray microfilms to dry. Most types of x-ray microfilms have coatings that if allowed to dry will make the film layers sticky. So, not only will this cause the x-ray films to stick together but it will also remove information on the films. To keep them from drying out, you should place the wet x-ray films in plastic bags or Ziploc bags and keep them somewhere cold like a fridge if you do not have too many records. Remember to use disposable gloves when handling the x-rays to prevent causing further damage.
3.)Whether you have arranged for the pick-up of the wet x-rays within the day or you have opted for same-day shipping, you need to pack the x-ray films properly. Once you have placed them in plastic bags, make sure to the bags are sealed tightly.
4.)Place the bags in a secure cardboard box and label the box accurately with your complete contact information, including name and company name (if applicable) as well as the contents of the box.
5.)If you are shipping the x-ray films, be sure to call the restoration contractor to inform them on the quantity of the records, as well as relevant shipping information like the shipping and expected arrival times. This will help ensure that the contractor will be ready to receive your documents. Likewise, if you are taking advantage of the contractor’s pick-up service, make sure to call them to confirm the time of the pick-up so you will have enough time to prepare the x-ray films.
6.)If same-day pickup or shipping of wet x-rays is not possible and it will take more than five days for the films to be worked on, then they should be frozen. Storing the x-rays in their wet condition for longer than five days will create more damage to the films. Perform the same procedure as above when freezing wet x-rays. Place them in a plastic bag and seal it tightly. Ideally, use blast freezers to keep the x-ray films frozen.
Although dry-freezing damaged x-rays is a typical procedure for water-damaged x-rays, tapes, photographs and other similar media that cannot be dealt with immediately, some restoration experts say this practice should be avoided because debris and contaminants can get trapped easily in the wet emulsion of the films. This, in turn, makes cleaning more difficult and is likely to result to poor restoration.
Inventory Check
While a good restoration service provider should have an effective system of monitoring inventory to prevent the loss of important documents, it is also equally important for you to have your own inventory check prior to sending the materials to the contractor. An effective inventory monitoring system is important particularly for vital medical records such as x-rays where critical data is located notes and in the x-ray jacket. If you have a large quantity of records that need to be restored, an inventory system is definitely a must.
Make sure to list down all the records that you sent for restoration so when you get the documents back, you have an easy reference to determine whether your records are complete. Should there be any missing films, you could easily backtrack and find out which records are missing. This would also enable faster search of missing documents if you can quickly determine from your inventory if a record was indeed sent to the restoration contractor.
With the tips above, there is no reason to despair over water-damaged x-ray films. There is hope if you act quickly and observe the above-mentioned steps. . It would be prudent to orient yourself and other personnel on how to prepare wet x-rays for restoration so you would all be ready if the unexpected should happen.
