shredding paperwork dose not comply with HIPAA regulations.

Question

medical professional

Answer 1

I assume you are asking if shredding documents complies with HIPAA regulations. If you are asking if it's ok to shred documents that are not part of the legal medical record to maintain confidentiality, yes. Documents that contain protected health information, that is, information that can be used to identify a patient, should be shredded to maintain patient confidentiality. If, for example, I jot down information about a patient on a piece of paper, such as the patient's name, date of birth, diagnoses, date of admission, etc. in order to call another healthcare provider involved in that patient's care, I should properly destroy those notes by shredding when finished. If I am a nurse who is taking notes on assigned patients in order to do my job, I should destroy those notes by shredding at the completion of my shift.