Ensuring productive use of patient space for child guidance resource centers

Customer Success Stories

Child Guidance Resource Centers

April 8, 20158 mins
Child Guidance Resource Centers- A worker playing with a child
Challenge:

Moving records offsite to meet audit requirements and ensure productive use of patient space.

Solution:

Iron Mountain Small Business Offsite Records Storage and Secure Shredding

Value:
  • Repurpose unproductive office space for more strategic initiatives.
  • Easily retrieve necessary documentation during federal audits.
  • Enhance patient record accessibility through bar-coding and digitization.
  • Ensure secure and safe document destruction.

Keeping up with Today's Ever-Changing Business Requirements

Child Guidance Resource Centers (CGRC) is a private, non-profit organization that brings behavioral health and education services to children, young adults, and families across four counties in Pennsylvania. With over 58 years of experience, CGRC delivers quality care to thousands of local patients a year and offers 20 unique therapeutic programs for both children and adults.

Freeing up Space and Maintaining Industry Standards

To work with such a wide variety of programming, CGRC relies heavily on available space to attend to patients. Privacy Officer Sandy Bonaduce has acknowledged that space is crucial to cutting costs and keeping the center running.

“There’s never enough space for records,” Bonaduce said. “Our space is primarily program space. [And] if it’s program space … it’s billable space. The more children we can bring in, the more programming we can do, the more our financial bottom line is positive.”

Just as important to maintaining operations is CGRC’s ability to keep pace with rigorous retention requirements and legal regulations.

“We are mandated by the federal government to have a compliance plan,” Bonaduce said. “So we are constantly looking at compliance from many points of view; from the completeness of the record, to the accessibility of the record, to the financial impact.”

We are a [medium-sized] company, yet a small enough company that if a breach were to occur, that could be devastating to our business.
Sandy Bonaduce, Privacy Officer

State law dictates that CGRC retain youth patient information until the child in question reaches the age of 28. Yet despite the sheer volume of records, CGRC is also subject to audits from at least ten different licensing and regulatory bodies each year. Failure to comply with these strict audits — many of which require that certain records be available within 24 hours — could result in a crippling shutdown. Due to the large number of records, it is essential that CGRC has quick and easy access to its files.

Sending Files Offsite - Yet Keeping them Close at Hand

After careful consideration, CGRC decided to implement a records management program with a trusted vendor that could transport their files to a secure offsite location, while still allowing for quick retrieval through bar-coding and scanning.

CGRC also discovered that, to free up even more program space, a secure and streamlined method of document disposal was needed. The organization determined that using the same vendor for records management and records shredding could save a considerable amount of money each year; money that could be repurposed to enhance overall patient care.

We've been able to keep up with changing requirement[s] from insurance companies, [and] changing requirements from the state. That's not an easy task.
Sandy Bonaduce, Privacy Officer

Business Value

CGRC turned to Iron Mountain not only to meet its records management needs, but also to establish a consultative partnership that has enabled it to thrive, even in the face of today’s demanding compliance requirements.

“Iron Mountain treats your records like you’re going to treat your records,” Bonaduce said. “Today, I think we all … have things to worry about. Litigation is always just one day away. [Iron Mountain understands] that when I need something, I need it. [And] I need it fast.”

Now, when an audit is approaching, CGRC can put in a simple, same-day request with Iron Mountain and can have the necessary files in hand within a matter of hours.

"There's never enough space for records. Our space is primarily program space. [And] if it's program space, it's billable space. The more children we can bring in, the more programming we can do, the more our financial bottom line is positive."

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