Healthcare providers continue to place an emphasis on digital data security, but it’s sometimes easy to forget physical patient medical records are still an enormous source of identity theft and privacy breach. While many document shredding companies take their clients’ material off-site to be shredded because it’s a cheaper method of destruction, Oakland Park-based UNISHRED, which specializes in high security on-site document and hard drive destruction, does exactly the opposite.
“On-site document destruction is the most secure method of destruction,” says Scott Boynton, who co-founded the company along with his wife, Manuela, in 2006. “You shorten the chain of custody and remove the potential for sensitive information to be mishandled, lost or stolen. We pride ourselves in offering on-site shredding at off-site prices. Our model is a real win-win for our customers.”UNISHRED was the first company in the country to launch a mobile shredding truck fitted with a separate hard drive crusher and is the only company in Florida to hold AAA NAID and MSA Certifications.
“Everyone is concerned with keeping costs low without sacrificing service," says Boynton. “This is where we really excel because we have such great route density and mobile shredding trucks that are fast and efficient.”
Today, UNISHRED has 17 employees working out of its Ft. Lauderdale office, servicing large hospitals, medical groups as well as hundreds of physicians offices. It offers a turn-key proper PHI (patient health information) disposal program for its healthcare customers in South Florida. This training is a real value add for its customers since it provides all of the training along with HIPAA and FIPAA compliance documentation at no additional cost.
“We understand the healthcare environment very well and our highly trained and seasoned route representatives are experts at working in patient care environments,” Boynton says. “We have an incredible track record of having never had a single information breach.”
Boynton notes that many practices, hospitals and other healthcare companies run separate recycling programs within the healthcare industry. His company tries to educate its customers that all paper should go into secure shredding containers instead.
“100 percent of what we shred is recycled while 100 percent of what is recycled through paper recycling programs is not shredded,” he explains. “When all paper goes into the shredding bins there is no chance that PHI or HIPAA protected material ends up in the wrong hands. It is a simple but effective policy to shred all paper.”
One of the areas that UNISHRED really wants to focus on this year is physician offices that are still shredding paper on their own.
“Buying shredders and paying employees to shred is a more expensive and less compliant model and is a very poor use of employee time,” says Boynton. “Our turnkey service is very efficient and compliant whereas self- shredding is very inefficient and leaves the door open for all kinds of compliance issues. It is really a matter of managing risk and exposure.”
He adds that the company operates under the old “customers for life” motto.
“It’s all about service and our customers appreciate and now expect the hands on, instant response we have to their needs,” he says. “We live in a day and time where consumers are having to settle for automated attendants, long wait times, lack of response, and less than 5 star service. We believe that service industries such as ours can not be managed by iPhones. It is all about our people serving our customers. Our people will always be the key to our success and our customers’ happiness.”
The goal is for UNISHRED to continue to be the leader in the healthcare market through superior service, a great value proposition and continued innovation. For example, UNISHRED is currently working with a company called Cantaloupe Systems to develop a wireless monitoring device that can alert them when shredding bin fill rates reach a certain level.
“These innovations are all about allowing us to be more efficient so that we can service our clients better and keep costs down,” says Boynton. “It is not about changing the model to offsite or taking the human element out of the service equation.”
