Patient Privacy – Shredding for Medical Professionals

Patient Privacy – Why a Shredder is a Necessity for Your Practice.

Most health care and medical professionals understand the importance of properly destroying medical records in order to protect patient privacy. For patients, confidentiality isn’t a privilege or just nice to have — it’s a right. With medical records containing everything from medical history to financial reports to personal contact information, ensuring that documents are stored and disposed of securely is of the utmost importance, both ethically and legally.

Doctors and healthcare practitioners are entrusted with individuals most sensitive and confidential information, which must be handled with care and professionalism. Thus when medical records are being discarded, it is vital that the medical records destruction process also be managed with utmost care and professionalism.

How to Ensure Patient Privacy.

When it comes to patient privacy and disposing of documents, enacting a “shred all” policy can help ensure that unneeded papers are properly destroyed. Using a cross-cut shredder can make it nearly impossible to piece together the information once it has been shredded.

Restrict access to patient information to necessary personnel.
Develop an effective training program to ensure that all staff are well informed on how to destroy documents and why this process is important.
Provide a secure document disposal receptacle where required, such as at each nurse’s station or inside main examining rooms.
Effectively manage both electronic and paper-based administration within a clearly defined workflow.

If you want to know more about buying the best shredder to protect your patient privacy, simply click here and we’ll contact you.