Protect Your Patient’s Privacy Through Using Shredders

When you are managing the safety of patients, their privacy is extremely important. So you need to make sure that their privacy is being upheld, and one way you can do this is by using shredders.

This article will discuss the ways in which using shredders can help protect the privacy of your patients and what shredders are best for doing so.

The Different Methods of Data Destruction for Patient Privacy

The equipment you should use to destroy your patient data safely and securely depends on how the data is recorded. If you are using paper for your patient data, then the best destruction method is high-security paper shredders, which are available in the highest security level (Level 6/P-7). If your patient data is stored digitally, a hard drive shredder or degausser would be better suited to your needs.

Each one of these data destruction methods is designed to uphold your patients’ privacy and keep their information and data secure and private. This is vital in a hospital or healthcare environment.

High-Security Shredders

The best method for protecting patients’ privacy is to use high-security shredders. These kinds of shredders are created to handle data destruction for top-secret records, such as patient documents, and they will keep your patients’ privacy safe and secure.

Shredders have different levels of security. There are six security levels, and these levels determine the privacy level that the shredder will uphold. All of the high-security shredders come in the highest level of security, which is Level 6/P-7. Level 6 shredders, also known as P-7, are produced to destroy the most confidential or sensitive documents possible, and are ideal for hospitals as patient confidentiality is very important.

Many of our Level 6/P-7 shredders have undergone extensive testing by the National Security Agency (NSA) to verify that they fulfil federal security regulations. Level 6/P-7 shredders are the top data destruction security level for paper materials because of their tiny shred size, which is about 1 mm x 5 mm.

These high-security shredders include micro-cut shredders . These types of shredders offer superior protection by slicing documents into small, confetti-like pieces. The confetti-like pieces render them the best solution for shredding confidential documents since the tiny bits of paper make it difficult to reconstruct the original document.

Hard Disk Drive & Solid State Drive Shredders

Sometimes, your patient data that you have to destroy is on a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD) rather than on paper. In order to demolish the data, you need a specialized HDD or SSD destruction machine . We carry a large selection of HDD and SSD shredders, degaussers, and disintegrators to help you eradicate even the most sensitive data.

Whether it's degaussing the magnetic properties of a hard drive, shredding it into particles, or mechanically crushing it, Whitaker Brothers' physical destruction methods effortlessly dispose of classified data. With these groundbreaking solutions, individuals and organizations can maintain maximum security.

Specialized Degaussers

Another option for destroying the data on a hard drive is using a degausser. Degausser machines use a strong magnetic force to disrupt a hard drive, making its data irretrievable. This can stop the data on the hard drive from being recovered, should the hard drive be compromised.

This is important for patient data safety as it completely wipes the data on the hard drive, making it one of the most comprehensive methods of data destruction for hospitals.

The Types of Degausser Machines:

• Hard Drive Degaussers: These tools are specifically developed to erase data from hard drives, providing an effective method for data destruction.

• Portable Degaussers: Ideal for on-the-go data erasure, these compact degaussers are meant for organizations that need to securely demolish data in different locations, from floppy disks and other storage devices.

• High-Volume Degaussers: For large-scale data destruction, high-volume degaussers are the best choice. These machines are capable of obliterating large quantities of data quickly and efficiently when on a flat surface.

No matter what degausser model you are looking for, Whitaker Brothers has excellent products to help you wipe data, protect sensitive information, and safeguard confidential documents from identity theft and data copying.

High-Security Shredders for Hospitals from Whitaker Brothers

Nearly all Whitaker Brothers High-Security Shredders are NSA-Evaluated and meet or exceed the NSA/CSS Specification 02-01 (Level 6/P-7) for High-Security Crosscut Shredders. Our high-security shredders are also approved for ALL levels of classified paper destruction, to include: SAP, COMSEC, SCI and TS. With our line of Datastroyer, MBM/Destroyit, and Fellowes shredders, and over 80 years of experience in the high-security document destruction industry, Whitaker Brothers is qualified to assist you with meeting your data security requirements.