SELECTSHRED | MEDICAL COMMUNITY AND DOCUMENT DESTRUCTION
PORT ST LUCIE SHREDDING FORT PIERCE SHREDDING
STUART SHREDDING PALM CITY SHREDDING
HOBE SOUND SHREDDING JENSEN BEACH SHREDDING
The medical community is at the forefront of implementing document destruction procedures such as shredding on a regular schedule and using a third party document destruction vendor. The strict regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and audits make it mandatory for hospitals, medical facilities, and doctors’ offices to adhere to federal regulations to avoid fines that could reach over a million dollars per incident. All health-related organizations are subjected to data breach notification, increased enforcement, and vendor contract requirements.
Some medical offices believe that they are too small or too paperless to utilize a third party document destruction service. Recently, an office manager at a doctor’s office said it best “We are not paperless—we are chartless.” That office is currently in the process of removing all charts off the wall and scanning the information in every chart. Of course, this is something that many medical facilities will be faced with as they comply with Electronic Health Records (EHR) requirements by 2015 to avoid penalties that will be imposed under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.
Although your office might be in the process of going paperless, the need and expectation to safeguard the confidential information in your custody and to protect patient privacy will remain. Confidential patient information must still be secured and shredded after it has been scanned. Many forms are still being used as patients come into the office on a daily basis. Documents are still being faxed from one office to another. This information must all be secured until shredded. Your best protection is the use of a document destruction service that is NAID AAA Certified. With a third party vendor, outsourcing your shredding is more secure, it is less expensive, and there is a record of compliance. A document destruction company provides a certificate of destruction after each service.
For doctors and medical facilities in Fort Pierce, Port St. Lucie, Stuart, Palm City, Jensen Beach, Rio, Hobe Sound, Port Salerno, Sewall’s Point, Jupiter, North Palm Beach, Jupiter Island, West Palm Beach, and Palm Beach Gardens, Okeechobee, and Vero Beach, it is important to understand that your office is not too small or too paperless to have a partnership with a secure on-site document destruction company. A mobile shred truck that arrives at your location and shreds all documents at your location is your greatest ally to help you avoid fines and lost reputation, and to comply with federal regulations.
Richard Kinkead & Gloria Kinkead
SelectShred, Inc.
T: (772) 463-3166
