Medical Record Shredding
We know that proper medical waste management and removal is crucial to protection staff and the community. Medical waste are unwanted biological products that are highly infectious in nature. If not disposed properly, it poses a health and environmental danger.
While not physically dangerous to others, medical professionals also have a duty to properly handle the removal of medical records and all patient data that is no longer required to retain.
Individual states generally govern how long medical records are to be retained. Understanding retention requirements is an obvious first step toward compliance. Once you’ve determined when it’s legally time to remove the records, a licensed shredding company should be hired to destroy the paperwork properly.
In general, retaining records—particularly paper records—for too long may be burdensome for medical record staff. Retaining paper records is also labor intensive and something that can be avoided if information is destroyed according to schedule. Record retention challenges also extend beyond a hospital’s walls, particularly as health information exchanges become more commonplace.
Know when and how you can safely destroy medical records. MedXWaste recommends Legal Shred, a NAID AAA-certified provider that can securely destroy your medical records. NAID certified means you are working with a vendor who has met all of the necessary steps required, under all regulatory guidelines, to protect sensitive data for clients, customers, and patients. In the shredding and document destruction industry, NAID is the only recognized source for security and ethics standards.
