The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is putting a financial strain on most hospitals these days. It's forcing them to measure and account for data in ways they never had to before. At Baptist Health Care Corp., . . .
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is putting a financial strain on most hospitals these days. It's forcing them to measure and account for data in ways they never had to before. At Baptist Health Care Corp., CIO Dave Garrett used tools from Superior Consultant Co. in Southfield, Mich., to do a gap assessment and to identify deficiencies in HIPAA compliance. The company's IT team then made a remediation plan.

One of the first things Garrett did was centralize and coordinate the destruction of protected health information. Instead of shredding documents in small batches, Garrett brought in huge locked bins with small slits just large enough to slide through paper, radiology film and magnetic tapes. Baptist contracted with a company that's bonded and insured to empty the bins, either by shredding the bins' contents under lock and key in the contractor's truck in the parking lot or, if the volume is too large, back at its plant.

"People love it because they say they don't have to waste time standing around in front of the shredder anymore," says Garrett.

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