Route supplier ads away from clinical records

Set up the vendor list

1. Make one row for each advertising sender, with the company name and product category, such as gloves, software or furniture.
2. Name the person approved to buy in each category. Send advertising for categories with no approved purchaser to whoever manages vendors.
3. Mark which senders you still want to hear from and which you want to stop sending postal advertising.
4. Do not put patient names, chart numbers or clinical details on the list. Give any piece that mentions a patient to your privacy contact.
5. Assign one authorized person to contact the senders you marked for stopping.

Tell advertising apart from real vendor mail

Some advertisements are made to look like invoices. The FTC warns businesses and nonprofits about fake invoices and unordered goods and says to check invoices against approved records before paying. A real invoice from an actual supplier goes to accounts payable, not into this list.

Only ordinary supplier advertising belongs in a removal request, and only someone with authority to act for the practice should send one. Ask each sender what postal options it offers, because each company sets its own policy.

Give the person opening mail one rule

Send ordinary supplier advertisements to the category purchaser or vendor manager. Keep invoices, service and safety notices, and patient material in their established review routes. Add newly confirmed advertising senders to the worksheet when the authorized purchaser has decided whether to keep them.

Official source

• FTC: Scams and Your Small Business