Hipaa Storage Of Paper Medical Records

All medical records are subject to the hipaa privacy rule and the same considerations should be given to maintaining the integrity of paper medical records and preventing the unauthorized disclosure of phi.

Hipaa storage of paper medical records. In order to maintain hipaa compliance with your paper record storage you need to think about physical safeguards. Medical records and phi must be stored where there is controlled access we recommend that medical records and phi stored in hallways that are accessible by unauthorized individuals should be in locked cabinets. They can physically store your records at a protected location retrieve files for you and scan all or some of your files when you need them. What are physical safeguards.

Set up security protections against the risks discovered. Maintaining hipaa compliance across digital paper records hipaa compliance must remain a top priority even as organizations utilize printers scanners and faxes to monitor different types of. No open shelves in a hallway that allows access to individuals not authorized to access those medical records and phi. Your emr may not take up the physical office space that your paper records once did but the demand for storage space for these files will only grow.

Physical safeguards are defined in the hipaa security series as physical measures policies and procedures to protect a covered entity s systems and related building and equipment from natural and environmental hazards and unauthorized intrusion. Hacking information doesn t just happen to digital information. In 2012 there were more breaches involving medical records on paper covered by hipaa than electronic records 45 from mid may to mid june. What to do about electronic storage.

All hipaa compliant storage should be assessed for any risks on a regular basis. No open shelves in a patient or research subject area. Here is how you move forward. Paper records and electronic records need to be treated the same don t forget about the paper.

Record the security steps that are taken and why they were taken as relevant.