In filing, how are fetal monitor strips filed relative to inpatient records?

• A. In SSN terminal digit order inter filled with inpatient records
• B. In SSN terminal digit order the same as inpatient records
• C. In SSN terminal digit order inter filled with outpatient records
• D. In alphabetical order

Answer: (B)

When using SSN terminal-digit filing, items that belong to the inpatient record stay with that record in the same numeric sequence. Fetal monitor strips are part of the inpatient documentation, so they should be filed in the same terminal-digit order as the inpatient records. This keeps all related documents together for a given patient, making retrieval straightforward and ensuring the strips can be found alongside the corresponding inpatient file. Interfiling with outpatient records or switching to alphabetical order would disrupt the numeric indexing and make it harder to locate all components of a patient’s inpatient record.