Where’s the Stimulus Money for Paper Shredders – We Could Certainly Use a Few More

Maybe we jumped the gun a little bit with electronic medical records and perhaps we should look at getting every medical facility a shredder first? Every week a new story seems to appear about “paper” charts. After converting to medical records you need to do something with the paper and also for records that no longer need to be stored, they need to be shredded too, regardless of where the facility is with electronic records.

This guy bid $25.00 for the contents of a storage unit and what did he get, paper medical records, of no value to him, but of plenty value to those who’s name and information were in the files. This person paid $20.00 for old records to be used as “scrap paper”. That is a scary thought to know your personal health records have value as “scrap”.

Personal Health Records (PHR), I don’t do technology said the CEO, “it’s for those guys over there”

One of my favorites is this story, about the shredder breaking down and the folks decided to burn the records and caught the building on fire.

What a novel idea, price in the purchase of at least one shredder with every electronic medical record system purchased. Due to size some would of course need more than one and perhaps we could devise some standards for the number of shredders needed.

To take that idea one step further, even those practices who are still on paper could use at least one, so what ever the case would be, we need shredders! Some offices use a service that does this for them, but you still need one on premise as a back up if the company went out of business or if you cancel the account.

If you are worried about the electric bill, then there’s one that is powered by hamsters, but then again you would have some expense in feeding the little guy.

There are also some convenient hand held models for sale too that plug into the USB drive of your computer. Gee everyone could have one of these attached to their computer for that matter.

Ok, so I guess I have made my point, get shredders and use them in the healthcare facilities and maybe in the near future they could become a vital part of an electronic system too. BD

Anyone who peered inside the mixed paper bin at the Dupont Recycling Center this afternoon got an eyeful.
Files, in plain sight, which authorities say contained sensitive medical and identity information.

"Upon finding those, they discovered it wasn't a small amount. it was a large amount that we had to notify Hutchison medical center and one other medical facility," says Investigator William Puckett with the Chattanooga Police Department.

Our cameras were rolling as police took the files out of the bin and put them into police cars.

"Thousands" Of Medical Records Discovered In Recycling Bin | newschannel9, records, afternoon - Local News - WTVC NewsChannel 9: Chattanooga News, Weather, Radar, Sports, Lottery

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