Medical Offices Benefit from using Pacific Northwest Shredding
HIPAA Compliance Through Proper Documentation
A person’s medical records are widely considered the most private of all, with recognition of the need for confidentiality dating back as far as the Hypocritic Oath in 400 BC.
Presently, Washington’s My Health Data Act and national regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act impose much more direct and consequential privacy requirements, including severe penalties and large fines for allowing unauthorized access.
This means that when smaller medical facilities such as doctors’ offices, laboratories, surgical centers, and pharmacies fail to fulfill their legally mandated data destruction obligations, as many do, it is both risky and potentially very costly. Especially when one considers that medical data breach notification is now a national law and healthcare identity theft is the most troublesome form of identity fraud.
Many of these medical offices report that they have tried office shredders, discovering after that no one used it or that, when they did, the machine was too slow and easily broke down. Some medical offices feel they are so small, and their volume of destruction is so little, that they are safe to tear it up or just toss it in the trash.
That’s probably what the Arkansas chiropractor fined $321,000 for improper disposal of records last year thought. Same for the Beth Israel Senior Health Center when their trashing of records made headlines in the New York Times, and the North Carolina doctor fined $40,000 when patients' records were discovered in his dumpster.
What makes these events even more unfortunate is that most healthcare professionals want to do the right thing. These problems resulted because the solutions available to them haven’t worked. Some have given up, intentionally remaining in the dark about what happens to the daily flow of paper from their offices, or they run out and buy a shredder, hope their staff will use it.
Pacific Northwest Shredding to the Rescue
Fortunately, there is a solution that works: Pacific Northwest Shredding’s on-site service. Whether cleaning up a backlog of material or for routine removal, why not make an appointment for a visit from one of our mobile shredding trucks? Our polite, screened, and trained driver and our state-of-the-art equipment make the process painless, and you can rest assured everything’s properly destroyed.
Contact us today to learn how even the smallest medical offices can benefit from our cost-effective, routine service.
