Blog

With over 16 years of combined experience, A1 DATASHRED is the most professional, cost-effective and trusted shredding company.

Medical Records Shredding Tewksbury, MA

We shred your outdated medical records at the location of your choosing in Tewksbury, Massachusetts six days a week. To get a quote and make an appointment just give us a call. You can have service as soon as tomorrow.

Get A Quote Today

We have been servicing healthcare providers with on-site shredding of medical records for many years in the Tewksbury, Massachusetts area.  Our experienced staff is available to speak with you so we can put together a service that meets your needs. We can give you a quote right over the phone and set up your service date at the same time. Your service can start tomorrow.

Two Great Options for the Destruction of Healthcare Files

One-time File Purges – If your medical office needs to do a purge of charts once a year or you want to reduce boxes of medical records you have at an offsite storage facility our one-time service is a great way to go. This service is for any occasional need to shred patient charts and records.

Ongoing Shredding Programs – If your office staff is throwing out documents regularly if not daily you need to put a shredding program in place.  We will place our locked collection containers in your office so anytime your staff is throwing out a document they do so in one of the locked containers. We will arrive at your office on a recurring basis to empty and shred the contents of each receptacle. Your schedule can be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, every other month or quarterly.

Who Needs To Destroy Medical Records?

Every doctor’s office, urgent care centers, ambulatory surgical centers, laboratories, Hospitals and all other healthcare providers need to shred medical records when they are being disposed of. In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) passed into law. Part of the act, included a privacy rule, with significant privacy protections for Protected Health Information (PHI) and severe penalties for violations. That means if you are disposing of patient charts they need to be shredded.

The HIPAA Privacy Rule

Under HIPAA, the term for protected documents refers to Protected Health Information, (PHI). The rule calls for specific methods of destruction of PHI. Just tossing hard copy information in dumpsters or any trash receptacle without be shredded is a violation.

Approved destruction methods include:

The rule requires PHI be made unreadable, incapable of reconstruction, indecipherable and impossible to reconstruct. Shredding, pulping, burning and pulverizing are approved methods of destroying medical records.

You Should Keep Documentation of Destroyed Medical Records

In addition to written policies and procedures on retention and destruction, it is recommended that a healthcare facility maintain documentation of the medical records that are destroyed. These logs should be maintained permanently and should include the following:

  • Date of destruction
  • Method of destruction
  • Description of the destroyed records
  • The signatures of the individuals supervising and witnessing the destruction

A1 DataShred makes logging destroyed patient charts easy by providing you with a Certificate of Destruction.

The Benefits of Outsourcing Destruction of Medical Information to A1 DataShred

Hospitals, clinics, laboratories, and physician offices are in the business of providing healthcare. Even with the implementation of Electronic Medical Records Systems (EMR’s) the amount of paper and other hard copy documentation produced in health care facilities is immense. Those healthcare providers that destroy records in-house learn quickly that it is a time consuming task. Paying staff to feed medical records through a small shredder is expensive. Outsourcing document destruction to A1 DataShred makes destroying medical records easy and cost effective. All you have to do is show us what files you want shredded and we do the rest.

Give A1 DataShred a call today.

October 31, 2020