Shredding Medical Documents

| Friday, December 16, 2011
By Adriana Noton


Not many people likely think about that thick stack of medical documents inside the folder at your doctor's office. If you've been a patient at your doctor for any number of years, that file can get pretty thick with documents. You go to the doctor, get checked out, maybe pick up a prescription and head home.

The last thing you're thinking about is your file, or who else may be interested in your file. The fact is, there may be plenty of other people interested in your medical documents, all with a criminal intent. Demand for prescription drugs on the black market and the desire to file false health insurance claims has made medical identity theft a growing industry. Paper shredding has never been more prudent or important to help stop identity theft from happening at all. Doctor / patient confidentiality has been one of the cornerstones of the medical profession ever since there were doctors, and a patient's medical documents falling into the wrong hands is unacceptable.

For a medical office, getting rid of paper trails through effective paper shredding helps accomplish many different objectives. First, any laws or legislation that govern medical documents and their destruction will be covered. Second, the privacy of your patients will remain private. No one wants all of his or her personal medical information floating around, and with a quality paper shredding service that is never a concern. Limiting security breaches through effective identity theft management is often the main concern for many patients, which is why employing a good paper shredding company makes sense. You can actually enhance the care of your patients with a good paper shredding program, as older or unnecessary information is moved out of the office. Effective paper shredding also helps make more room in the office as you eliminate old files.

When you seek out a paper shredding company to shred your medical documents, look for one that has the capabilities to destroy the documents so they can never be reconstructed. In some cases, shredded documents may be put back together, which ends up giving away all the information you were trying to keep private anyway. You also need a paper shredding company that is going to comply with any laws regarding medical record destruction, so you're always on the right side of the law.

A physician who allows a patient's medical documents to be stolen may also face his own legal problems. For many physicians who've been around for years, the magnitude of the documents can be overwhelming. It's wise to leave paper shredding to the experts, so you can focus more on your patient's care. Since paper shredding in general, and shredding medical documents in particular is such an important task, a quality paper shredding company will shred your documents essentially under lock and key. Electronic Glasgow paper shredding, or the removal and destruction of e-medical documents, is also a service of most reputable paper shredding businesses will provide.




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