Privacy - Disposing of Confidential Information

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Procedure

Palomar Pomerado Health

Privacy - Disposing of Confidential Information

Privacy

29272

Applicable to:
All PPH Facilities

(Rev: 3)Official

Affected Departments:
All Departments

I. PURPOSE:
To provide guidelines for the proper disposal of patient identifiable information and proprietary business
information within PPH (Palomar Pomerado Health) facilities.
II. DEFINITIONS:
Other Media - Any electronic media containing patient identifiable information, including financial information,
medical information, names, and other demographic information.
Proprietary Business Information - Information belonging to a certain owner or proprietor that is to be kept
confidential. It can include but is not limited to business plans, salary structure, marketing plans, meeting
minutes, etc.
III. TEXT / STANDARDS OF PRACTICE:
PPH staff must protect patient information from unauthorized access and use. To facilitate proper disposal,
PPH provides a comprehensive program for managing the confidential destruction of patient identifiable
information and proprietary business information.
All patient care areas must be equipped with at least one confidential bin.
All patient identifiable information and proprietary business information must be properly disposed of in
approved confidential bins only.
NOTE: This procedure does not cover the destruction of original medical records or x-rays. PPH has strict
procedures for the retention and proper disposal of medical records and x-rays. Please refer to Lucidoc #1012
"Record Retention-Record Management" for guidelines.
Media disposal (computer disks, optical disks, flash drives, cassette tapes, video tapes, and other media)
which are ready for destruction or disposal should be handled by the I.T. Division. Contact the PPH IT Service
Center at 858-613-HELP for further instructions regarding proper disposal.
Medical equipment containing patient names:
I.V. bags, ointment tubes, inhalers, pharmacy bottles have peel -off labels which should be removed and
placed in the confidential bin prior to disposal of the item.
Any other medical equipment items, use a black marker to obliterate the name and medical record number
prior to proper disposal.

V. DOCUMENT / PUBLICATION HISTORY: (template)

Revision
Number
(this
version) 3

Effective
Date
03/22/2011

Document Owner at Publication

Description

Kimberly Jackson, Director Health

Information Services/Privacy Officer

(Changes) 03/05/2009

Kimberly Jackson, Director Health

Revised media/hardware
disposal instructions as advised
by IT Security.
Media Disposal process

https://www.lucidoc.com/cgi/doc-gw.pl?ref=pphealth:29272&frame=HTMLALL

7/19/2011

Privacy - Disposing of Confidential Information

Page 2 of 2

Information Services/Privacy Officer

(Changes) 03/21/2008
1
(Changes) 02/29/2008
0

Kimberly Jackson, Director Health

Information Services/Privacy Officer
Kimberly Jackson, Director Health
Information Services/Privacy Officer

Authorized Promulgating Officers:

( 03/22/2011 ) Paul Peabody, Chief Information Officer

Publication Information:
Document ID
29272
Source

Privacy

Document
Status
Signed by

Official

change
[Reviewed on 3/1/2010 by
Kimberly Jackson: Extended
review to 3/1/2011]
corrected a misspelling

Document Owner
Source Source
Manager
Effective

Jackson,
Kimberly
Blaha, Dionne
03/22/2011

( 03/22/2011 ) Paul Peabody, Chief

Information Officer

VI. CROSS-REFERENCE DOCUMENTS:(template)

Reference Type
Source Documents

Title
Information Management

Notes

Paper copies of this document may not be current and should not be relied on for official purposes. The current
version is in Lucidoc at .
https://www.lucidoc.com/cgi/doc-gw.pl?ref=pphealth:29272

https://www.lucidoc.com/cgi/doc-gw.pl?ref=pphealth:29272&frame=HTMLALL

7/19/2011