How San Diego Medical Facilities Should Dispose Hard Drives

In order to protect the privacy of their patients, medical facilities have to use extreme caution when disposing of their medical hard drives. If done improperly, patients' medical information might end up in the wrong hands and the medical facility might be in violation of HIPAA guidelines.

HIPAA Guidelines in the Disposal of Protected Medical Health Information

HIPAA guidelines require that when medical facilities dispose of the protected health information of their patients, they must take the “appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect the privacy of protected health information.” As such, when a medical facility disposes of their hard drives, they need to make certain that the information on those hard drives are truly destroyed, and if they do not, they will be in violation of HIPAA guidelines and subject to civil and criminal penalties.

Hard Drive Erasing Programs

There are many companies out there who will try and sell you a hard drive erasing package, but these programs don’t always work, and even if they do, all it takes is an accident by an individual who is using one of these programs for something not to be erased. The simple fact is that you cannot risk using such programs. What you need is the complete destruction of these medical hard drives, and SES can handle that for your company in a safe manner that will keep you in compliance with HIPAA guidelines.

Complete Hard Drive Destruction

SES understands the privacy regulations that medical facilities have to follow when they need to dispose of their medical hard drives so they provide a complete reporting process so you can show auditors that you took the proper steps in eliminating such data. SES provides certificates of destruction so that you have proof that the data was in fact eliminated. We will pick up your hard drives, and transport them to our facilities where we will safely store them until the destruction occurs. You can even watch the complete destruction of your medical hard drive by way of our closed circuit cameras when we shred your hard drive.