Recovering medical documents is possible after experiencing damage

One of the worst nightmares of a file clerk in a hospital or even a small-town doctor is finding patient records and other medical documents damaged by water, humidity, mold or a fire. When medical documents are damaged, they will only get worse with time. To help those in the medical field solve this dilemma, Polygon provided instructions on what to do to recover critical medical documents in Facility Care magazine.

1. Hire a document restoration vendor. Choose a restoration company that offers in-house reclamation services. Doing this will improve the lines of communication between the client and the vendor and speed up business continuity.
2. Provide a HIPPA partnership agreement to a representative in the recovery firm. This will allow the restoration company to inventory the wet documents, remove them from the affected area and stabilize the damage. Joe Perko for Polygon states, “Recording the location and order of documents ensures a proper chain of custody and enables an efficient reintegration of documents once reclamation services are complete.”
3. Begin the document reclamation process. Restoration specialists should load inventoried boxes into a monitored freezer trailer so they can immediately be reclaimed at the document reclamation center. At the center, professionals will either vacuum freeze dry or desiccant dry the wet documents and wet books. In addition, restoration professionals may reproduce files digitally so they can provide copies of these important documents to the client quickly. The restoration company should provide the client with a Certificate of Destruction.
4. Get back in business.

Perko recommends all health facility managers include document recovery in their emergency preparedness plans.