Consider for a moment the fact that the type of secure information that people can steal from a medical facility is more valuable to a thief than even something like credit card numbers or bank account information. This is due to the fact that the level of damage that they can do is so much greater. Whereas a thief may be able to make a few hundred dollars in fraudulent charges before the credit card of a personal user is shut off, they can place orders for medical equipment, drugs and more with medical facility documents – all of which can then be sold at a premium on the black market.
Because of facts like this, secure document security for medical facilities are of paramount importance. Secure document storage and destruction requires the expertise of an AAA Certified Company like Shred on Site. If you want to protect your facility from this type of threat, there are a few key things to keep in mind.
Know When You Can Destroy Something and Take Action
In accordance with Australian privacy laws, secure document destruction is prohibited for certain types of items for specified periods of time. Even if a document isn’t necessary on a daily basis any longer, you can’t just get rid of it – it must be stored for safekeeping. One of the keys to document security involves knowing exactly how long you have to hang onto something and destroying it properly and safely immediately after the ability to do so opens up. This prevents secure documents from “falling through the cracks” within your organisation and also helps keep things tidy and organised at the same time. The consequences of your business not being compliant in document destruction is severe, and therefore warrants your complete attention.
Limit Employee Access
The fact of the matter is that if your medical facility has 100 different employees, not all 100 of those people will need access to every physical record that you’re responsible for keeping. One of the major keys to document security for medical facilities involves doing away with your “open door” policy for medical records and limiting access to only those employees who actually need something to perform their duties on a daily basis. Dr. Meyerson definitely needs access to a patient’s medical records to provide the highest level of care the next time she makes an appointment. Does Janet from Accounting need access to those same records? Probably not, and limiting access in this fashion will help you close security loopholes and guard against things like user error or even rogue employees at the same time.
These are just a few of the many reasons why secure mobile document shredding for medical facilities is so important. The types of paper shredding, clothing destruction, apparel destruction and uniform destruction services offered by Shred on Site in and around the Melbourne area will help not only protect the important patients that your medical facility services on a daily basis, but also your employees and ultimately your business, from exactly this type of harm. For help in establishing a scheduled document destruction service, contact Shred on Site today.
