Doctor Fined $40,000 for Record Dumping

It appears a Charlotte North Carolina doctor recently had to pay out $40,000 for dumping patient files at the local recycling center.

This makes it pretty clear that recycling is not the same as shredding.

1,000 records in 25 boxes containing the personal information of 1,600 patients were dumped by the doctor’s sons in mid-June of 2010.

This comes to a whopping $1,600 per box of records!

Kind-of puts the cost of shredding in perspective doesn’t it? Especially when you could drop off these boxes at a secure shredding facility, such as Total Secure Shredding (for instance), and only pay $4.45 per box. I’d say the total cost of $111.25 for the secure shredding of these 25 boxes pales in comparison to this $40,000 fine.

I’ve personally seen records just dumped off at the recycling center here in good old San Diego. I have to say, not only is this irresponsible with regard to patient information, it also just doesn’t make any sense when you now consider the hefty fines that are being handed out by Attorney Generals.

My rule is simple when it comes to deciding whether to shred or not: When in doubt, shred!

After all, why take a risk with your own identity theft or the identity theft of a patient, client, or employee?

As always, if you have any questions about whether you should shred, please feel free to give me a call.

And until next time… Keep Totally Secure.

Your friend,

Mike
Head Shredding Guy
(619) 295-5474

P.S. Here’s the full article if you’d like to check it out: Doctor pays $40,000 fine for dumping 1,600 patients’ medical records