Managing the Paper Chase
Develop a Records Management Program to Tackle Inefficiency

By Gail Bisbee, President/CEO, Confidential Records Management, Inc.

For Immediate Release   -   October 16, 2009

Managing company information is one of the most critical and challenging aspects of business operations.  Creating a records management program for both active and closed records is vital to organizational success.  Creating such a program can provide businesses significant savings in labor and legal expense. 

In a study conducted by Coopers and Lybrand the average office:

• Makes 19 copies of each document throughout its lifecycle


• Loses one out of every 20 office documents


• Loses a document every 12 seconds


• Spends $250 recreating each lost document


• Spends $20 on labor, filing each document


• Incorrectly files three percent of all documents


• Spends $120 searching for each misfiled document


• U.S. managers spend an average of three hours a week (four weeks a year) on paper chase, searching for misfiled, mislabeled or lost documents

Developing a records management program can prevent many of these statistics from occurring. Start by developing policies and procedures to demonstrate due diligence and ensure compliance.  Clearly outline expectations, authority and responsibility for your records management activities. Ensure personnel know how to properly treat records in file creation, active and inactive phases of the records management lifecycle. With time, it will become just another facet of everyday business.  If you should ever be audited or have a legal issue arise, you’ll be glad you took the time to put a plan in place. 

If you feel like developing a records management program is too much to tackle, call in the professionals.  Confidential Records Management, Inc. (CRMI) offers professional records management services ranging from off-site records management, document  imaging services and software, media vault, data protection and recovery, secure online back-up, and secure destruction services.  Customized training and consultation services are also available for the business and healthcare community to include: HIPAA and Document Retention and Destruction.