The Importance of Medical Record Destruction

If you’ve ever been on the wrong side of a claim or have observed what happens to a company when there is an information security breach, you understand the need to destroy sensitive information in a timely manner. But is mobile shredding really a secure process? How does it differ from off-site shredding and how you can be assured that the on-site shredding process will safely and completely dispose of all your sensitive documentation?

How On-Site Shredding Works

On-site shredding is exactly what it sounds like—shredding services that are performed on site at your business or residential location. The entire process of destroying your sensitive documentation is performed before your eyes. All of your documents that are to be shredded will be deposited into state-of-the-art shredding trucks and then immediately destroyed so that the information can no longer be accessed. Afterward, technicians will present you with an official Certificate of Destruction, issued for your benefit so that you have a record of its completion.

Fewer Risks Than Off-Site Shredding

On-site shredding has far fewer risks associated with it than off-site shredding. Transporting your documents elsewhere to shred them off-site puts the information at risk of being compromised due to unforeseen events that might occur between loading and arrival at the off-site shredding facility. On-site shredding services eliminate this risk entirely because the documents are shredded in front of you without being transported away from your location. Destroying the documentation before your eyes gives you the peace of mind knowing that the process is complete and the information is securely disposed of.

Protecting Your Information

When Shredding Mobile provides shredding services for you, it ensures the optimum level of security for your documentation. Our professional drivers and technicians go through an extensive seven-year background clearance, which we conduct to make sure that your information will not be accessed by unchecked hands. Calling on our experienced and dedicated professionals to perform shredding services for you reduces the risk of internally compromising sensitive data and guarantees that the data destruction is proper, adequate, and complete. In short, mobile shredding is perhaps the safest and most effective method of protecting your information through secure document destruction

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Medical facilities are under strict obligation to keep patients’ medical information safe. Because these records contain critical information related to patients’ well-being, this information can easily be abused if it is not safeguarded. AtShredding Mobile, we recognize why it is so important to carefully destroy medical records, and we are prepared to help you do so.

Protecting Patients

Those who work in the medical field are in an industry focused on helping people. Taking care of people who are sick, injured, or otherwise afflicted is what health and medicine are all about. Being careless with your patients’ medical records by failing to destroy them safely in the right timeline is a violation of their trust in you and a betrayal of your industry profession.

Obeying Legislation

Federal and state regulations have set demands for medical practitioners regarding patient information. These regulations determine what records must be retained, how long they must be kept, how they must be kept, and how they must be properly disposed of. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) legislates certain security provisions for data privacy. Violating HIPAA by failing to properly dispose of patient information puts patients at risk. It can also lead to costly penalties or even imprisonment for those held liable. Even beyond HIPAA, state laws may require additional protective measures. Obeying legislation in how you keep and destroy medical records protects you, your medical practice, and your patients.

The Risks

When records are not destroyed as they ought to be, problems can arise. Records could end up in unauthorized hands, which can lead to serious dangers for the patient and for your liable medical practice. Medical records include information related not just to a person’s financial or educational status but also the person’s medical health, and misappropriation of that information could put someone’s very life at risk. Additionally, if there is not an established systematic records retention and destruction policy in your office, records could easily be tossed in a garbage can (left in a readable state for unauthorized eyes), shredded prematurely (violating retention laws and posing a risk for audits), misplaced (and possibly reattributed to the wrong patient), or worse.