Any organization that is a part of the healthcare industry has a responsibility not only towards their customer’s health but also towards the confidentiality of their medical records. Data breaches have become an all too common occurrence these days. In addition, you are also liable to hold yourself accountable for any injuries or damages caused to third-parties by your practices.

It is highly recommended that any medical data or record that is no longer needed or used items that carry potential health risks should be completely destroyed. The best way to do so is through a healthcare records and hardware shredding service. 

What Medical Items Need Destruction?

Paper documents  

Despite the event of the digital revolution, there are still plenty of instances where physical record-keeping is required. These paper documents usually contain a lot of sensitive information about patients and thus, cannot simply be discarded intact.

To virtually eliminate the risk of a possible data breach, your best approach is to completely destroy them once their retention period is over.

Hiring a professional shredding service for the job can be advantageous rather than doing it yourself. Not only will your precious time be saved but also, you’ll receive a Certificate of Destruction to serve as proof that the documents were properly disposed of.  

Storage Drives

As a best practice, it is recommended to replace your old storage drives every 3 to 5 years. This is not just so you can benefit from the latest in innovations but rather as a safeguard against unexpected hard drive failure.

The older the hard drive, the higher the risk of it failing. Recovering important data from a failed hard drive can be incredibly expensive or, in the worst case, impossible.

Of course, once you upgrade, the older hard drives will need to be properly disposed of, which means getting rid of the confidential data stored on it. Formatting the drives doesn’t work as the data isn’t actually deleted, merely rendered unreadable by the OS.

Of all the options available at your disposal, the safest and the surest way to ensure that the data is completely inaccessible is by sending those storage drives to hardware shredding service for destruction.

X-Ray Films

Both from an environment and security perspective, you should be thinking twice before simply throwing obsolete X-ray films. They could possibly contain confidential data that if leaked, could cause your healthcare practice to receive fines, be subject to legal liabilities or suffer a loss of reputation.

Since discarded X-ray films are considered harmful to the environment, you can also possibly run the risk of having to contend with the EPA.

The solution? Send them over to a professional shredding service who possess the means to dispose of them securely and in an environmentally-friendly fashion.  

Pill Bottles

Improper pill bottle disposal carries risk in two ways. First, the labels on them contain confidential medical information that criminals can exploit to commit medical fraud. Second, the pill bottles themselves could be recycled for use in selling counterfeit drugs. Why court such risks? Hire a professional shredding company to have them destroyed completely.

Syringes

Used needles and syringes should never be thrown without being destroyed first. Otherwise, they can be a possible source of injury and disease transmission. Shredding services carry both the right knowledge and the right equipment to destroy and dispose of them properly and safely.  

Bandages, Gloves and Other Contaminated Items  

Used bandages, gloves, and other such possibly contaminated items are a serious source of biohazard and thus, should not be discarded alongside regular waste materials. A professional disposal service having expertise in handling such items should always be employed for the purpose.

Why Healthcare Providers Choose New Jersey Shredding?

New Jersey Shredding is a leading professional shredding service that goes above and beyond when it comes to providing cost-efficient and compliant data and hardware destruction. Here is a glance at what makes our service so great:

HIPAA Compliant

Our service is fully HIPAA compliant. We manage the destruction of your medical records and hardware in adherence to the strictest standards laid by HIPAA and other government-based regulatory agencies.

Affordable

We boast some of the competitive rates in the industry. At roughly $1 per pound, one will be hard-pressed to find a better rate anywhere in New Jersey.

No Sub-Contracting

With our service, there is a single direct chain of custody – you and us. We don’t subcontract the work to any national or overseas firm. We retain full responsibility for the secure and complete destruction of your discarded inventories.

Environmentally-Friendly

We adhere to a strict no-landfill policy when it comes to hardware disposal. All shredded electronics are sent over to a refining company for recycling.

Convenience

No need to send over your discarded inventory to us. Our shredding and disposal service can come to you instead!  We have a fleet of trucks equipped with industrial-grade shredders to destroy items on the spot.  

Request a Free Quote

We are committed to providing the best quality service within our industry, with 100% satisfaction guaranteed. Get a free, no-obligation quote for medical shredding from us today by calling (021) 371 5900 or emailing us at sales@newjerseyshredding.com.