It’s more important than ever to make sure your business, especially if it relates to the medical industry, properly shreds all documents prior to disposal.

On October 4, 2010 the University of Tennessee Medical Center became aware of a “daily administrative report” that was disposed of through the hospital’s regular trash as opposed to proper shredding.

Contained within the report was “certain patient-related information, including the patient’s name and social security number.”

As a result, 8,000 patients had to be notified of the potential privacy breach as required with the HIPAA/HITECH health data breach notification provision.

Early next year (February 18th to be exact), this same breach in patient information could lead to fine’s reaching a potential maximum of $1.5 million. This new HITECH mandatory fine structure kicks into effect if it is determined that the information breach is a result of “willful neglect.”

The UT Medical Center’s West Knoxville billing office also reported a computer stolen in August 2005. The hard drive on stolen computer contained “patient names, Social Security numbers, and birth dates.” Letters from the hospital were sent to the people who’s information was believed to be on the hard drive.

In either event, with the new HITECH laws and fines coming on-line in the coming year, it’s extremely important for health organization to have proper document/information handling and destruction policies in place.

Step 1: Make sure you have a written document destruction policy in place.

Step 2: Make sure all employees are properly trained on your companies policies.

Step 3: Make sure someone at your organization is responsible for implementing and auditing your companies policy and training.

If you ever have any questions with regard to setting up a proper document destruction policy and training program, please feel free to contact us and I’d be glad to help.

Until next time…

Keep Totally Secure,

Mike
Head Shredding Guy

This closely guarded Industry Secret could leave you wide open to Identity Theft.

Discover what the competition won’t tell you…

Hey Folks,

Mike here…

I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now…

It’s something that came up over lunch with a person in my mastermind group.

She was getting to know more about my business and asked me what certifications and licenses I needed in order to get started in the Shredding Industry.

I paused for a moment and responded, “Well… Actually… There’s no certificate or government license that’s required to start a shredding company… Outside of a regular business that is.”

My friend looked at me confused for a second and then replied, “So someone could be handling all these sensitive documents and there’s absolutely no guarantee that they are making sure everything is getting shredded properly?”

I responded, “Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the case.”

And that’s why it’s critical that consumers perform their due diligence when selecting a shredding company.

However, one of  the biggest problems is that many customers ignore whether or not a paper shredding service is qualified to securely destroy their documents but rather choose a paper shredding service only on the basis of price.

This has resulted in a multitude of new shredding companies that have popped up to undercut the competition only to make a quick buck. The reason they can undercut many of their competitors is that they are often times taking shortcuts on insurance, employee background checks, uniforms, or some other industry specific requirement.

Some of these shortcuts may seem superficial, but from my standpoint, if an organization, built around securing your documents, doesn’t look professional, how can you, I, or anyone else be sure sufficient security  precautions are  being taken when it comes to handling your documents.

The Bottom Line Is:

There is absolutely no governmental oversight of the document destruction industry.

And when it comes to the old saying, “Buyer Beware”, be especially aware when it comes to choosing a document destruction vendor.

So what is the average consumer to do?

That’s why I put together a “Paper Shredding Buyers Guide” that anyone can freely download

In this guide I open the door a little bit further into what the paper shredding industry is all about and to clear away some of the mystery that is hanging around out there. I even go as far as putting in some real money saving insider tips that only those deep inside the industry even know about. It walks you through exactly what to be looking for and what exactly to ask when you’re out there evaluating a potential shredding vendor.

As far as I can tell, this is a first of its kind.

Once you read through this guide, my hope is that you’ll be able to make a quality decision about choosing a paper shredding service.

So please, I posted the link below. Take a look into what this shredding thing is all about (I even put in two work sheets that you can fill out to help you with the decision process).

Click this link to check out the FREE guide: Paper Shredding Buyers Guide

Once you’ve taken a look and if you still have a few questions, you can always give us a call so we can get any other little items you have answered as well.

After all, that’s what we’re about, helping you with your information destruction needs… We are a service company.

So until next time.

Keep totally secure,

Mike

P.S. Once you’ve taken a look at the “Paper Shredding Buyers’ Guide” I put together, feel free to leave me a note in the comments section of this blog entry… I sure would like to hear what you think.

It was just back in December (I know that seems like a long time ago) when I last talked about “Standard Size File Boxes.”

In fact, I actually made a video visually describing what exactly is a “Standard Size File Box.”

Well confusion is still Running Rampant…

As a matter of fact, just the other day, a caller to our office was arguing with Vanessa my office manager that we had the dimensions all wrong for a “Standard Size File Box.”

According to the caller is just didn’t seem possible to put 8 ½” x 11″ sheets of paper into a file box that measures 15″ x 12″ x 10″.

If you seem confused by this, don’t worry, take me at my word – THEY FIT!

Since we don’t argue with customers, Vanessa let the episode pass by with hardly blinking an eye.

However, I get New Ammo for the blog.

And then, a little earlier this month, I had to eat humble pie (and lose revenue) when an issue about box size reared its ugly head. (Again… customer’s always right!)

Well let me set the record straight… (Again)…

Standard Size File Boxes measure 15″ x 12″ x 10″.

If you multiply all those measurement together (that’s what that little “x” means) you get a total volume of 1,800 cubic inches (in³).

That’s pretty straight forward.

The problem is that there are a few different box sizes commonly used to store documents and this creates confusion.

Here is a list of some of the more common box sizes and types:

STORAGE FILE BOXES

1. Letter/Legal: 15″ (length) x 12″ (width) x 10″ (height); 1,800 in³
2. Letter: 24″ (length) x 12″ (width) x 10″ (height); 2,880 in³
3. Legal: 24″ (length) x 15″ (width) x 10″ (heigth); 3,600 in³
4. Check: 14 1/4″ (length) x 9″ (width) x 4″ (heigth); 513 in³

#1 is what the Shredding Industry considers the “Standard Size File Box”

Box #2 is approximately one and a half times as big as a #1. Let’s check the math -  2,880 divided by 1,800 equals 1.6. So considering these boxes as one and a halfs does make sense.

Now let’s look at box #3. This box has exactly double the volume of box #1. When we do the math and divide 3,600 by 1,800 we get exactly 2. Thus, we consider these boxes to be doubles.

Finally, if we look at box #4, we see that this box has about one third the volume of box #1. The math again shows that if we divide 513 by 1,800 we get 0.285. Not quite 0.333, but close enough that we would consider three box #4 to be equal to one box #1.

If your eyes still haven’t rolled back into your head at this point…

I’ve got a couple more boxes to go!

STORAGE DRAWERS

1. Letter: 23 ½” (length) x 12 ¼” (width) x 10 ¼” (height); 2,951 in³
2. Legal: 24 ½” (length) x 15 ¼” (width) x 10 ¼” (heigth); 3,830 in³

Now, since these boxes basically have one box that rides in another, the volume is just a little bit bigger than the STORAGE FILE BOXES. But for shredding purposes, we still consider these two sizes to be  “One And A Halves” and “Doubles.”

The point of all this (finally I get to the point) is that we price our shredding service based on the volume of the container you have your stuff in…

And the most common size file box (The Standard Size File Box) is the box we base all our prices on.

For example: You can bring a box down to our facility and watch it get shredded while you wait  for only $5.95. But that’s not for any box; that’s for a Standard Size File Box. Obviously the price of $5.95 wouldn’t apply if you brought in the box your refrigerator came in full of documents.

So any prices we list are based on Standard Size File Boxes unless posted differently.

Consequently, if you have any of these other size boxes, you will be charged accordingly.

Again, back to our example, if you bring in a “Letter Box” (24″ x 12″ x 10″) to get shredded while you wait down at our facility, you won’t get charged $5.95. You will be charged $8.93 ($5.95 x 1.5 = $8.925)

The same thing goes for when we come out to you and perform Mobile Shredding or Pick-Up Shredding.

And finally, (This is a real “Pet Peeve” of mine) “Bankers Box®” is a BRAND NAME.

If you tell me you have “Bankers Boxes” you are telling me absolutely nothing about what size file box you have sitting in the storage closet.

Again, I think I’ve rambled on way too long.

But please keep in mind what exactly you currently have your documents in when you give us a call.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time.

Keep Totally Secure,

Mike