After a flood, a dental office has visible mold and water-soaked PAPER patient records. The most appropriate immediate step to preserve the records is to:

Correct answer: C. Place the records in plastic bags to protect/preserve them

• A. A fan can spread mold spores without preserving the documents.
• B. Air conditioning does not protect the wet records.
• C. Correct (per recall). Bagging the wet/contaminated records protects them and limits mold spread until they can be processed.
• D. Records are legal documents and should not simply be discarded.

Note: Recall-based answer; in practice, wet records are also dried/copied and the office must follow record-retention and remediation requirements.