Even though Quality Care Hospital has an EHR, many old paper records still exist, and the hospital is

required by law to continue to retain them. Since the hospital was unable to maintain all of the records

onsite, it hired Acme Storage to store its records offsite. Acme has stored all paper records since March

$1,2015.$ Quality Hospital somehow stopped paying the storage fees to Acme in $2019.$ On January $1,$

$2021,$ Acme started to throw out the records in a big dumpster. A new HIM director was hired on

December $7,2021.$ The HIM Department received a medical record request on February $18,2022.$ The

Release of information clerk could not locate the information and asked the HIM director where he

could locate paper medical records dating back to $2013.$ It took a few days for the HIM director to track

down the records. On February $23,2022,$ the HIM director discovered that Acme had thrown out the

records. On February $23,2022,$ the HIM director notified you, the privacy officer.