Medical practices have large amounts of sensitive documents on hand all the time. These range from patient records to billing information. These documents call for high security during disposal. Document shredding services are conducted to maintain proper compliance with regulations within any medical practice and ensure the confidentiality of patients is highly protected.
Why Do Medical Offices Conduct Document Shredding?
Medical offices require document shredding because sensitive information from patients must be disposed of securely. Medical records include personal identity information, possibly with health history, insurance information, and Social Security numbers. Unless these are properly disposed of, they can easily be accessed for identity theft and data breaches, leading to huge legal penalties.
What Documents Should a Medical Office Shred?
Anything from a medical office bearing the personal information of a patient should be shredded. This includes:
- Medical records of patients
- Prescription Information
- Medical billing and insurance records
- Appointment Schedules
- Employee records
- Old identification cards
How Frequently Should Medical Offices Shred Documents?
How often you shred depends on how much your office produces. Most medical practices prefer weekly and monthly scheduling for shredding to prevent the accumulation of highly sensitive documents at an office.
What Are the Benefits Of Hiring a Professional Shredding Comapny?
- Compliance: Professional shredding services usually have to be used to ensure business offices are compliant with HIPAA and other laws.
- Security: Shredding companies use industrial-grade equipment, meaning documents are destroyed without a single chance for reconstruction.
- Convenience: Shredding services can be set up based on need or request, whether weekly, monthly, etc.
- Cost-Effective: Outsourcing shredding is less expensive as compared to the in-house method involving extra labor and equipment.
Should Medical Offices Use On-Site or Off-Site Shredding?
When considering on-site versus off-site shredding, practices can weigh the pros and cons of each. Documents will be shredded at your location so you can witness the actual destruction first-hand—thereby knowing sensitive information is handled securely.
On the other hand, off-site shredding is the collection of documents for secure transport to a facility for shredding. This is more convenient in practices dealing with volumes of documents because bulk shredding is basically less expensive.
How Does A Shredding Service Achieve HIPAA Compliance?
Professional shredding services maintain very rigorous protocols to ensure that their activity falls within HIPAA regulations. This would include a certificate of destruction as proof of legal destruction. Any good shredding company must, therefore, be NAID-certified and apply the best practices in the industry regarding handling sensitive information.
Want to know how Jessica's Shredding Team can help your practice more easily maintain confidentiality and compliance? Contact us today
