Iron Mountain set to star in UK government records management strategy

Iron Mountain was recently chosen to become a preferred supplier within the U.K. government's new $306 million document management framework. In specific, the information management company is set to become the sole provider of offsite storage, scanning and secure shredding services.

The bulk of Iron Mountain's involvement will surround records storage, considering nearly 40 percent of the Government Procurement Service's (GPS) total investment will go into securing safe, offsite locations for public archives.

"Iron Mountain was chosen because of their demonstrated experience in managing and safeguarding public-sector records, their quality and range of services and their stated on-going commitment to security and innovation," GPS document management director Liz Baldwin explained. "The framework gives Iron Mountain a real opportunity to deliver savings to both central government and the wider public sector."

The information management company will work with a wide variety of U.K. institutions ranging from local universities to emergency services. However, Iron Mountain's most lasting impact could come from its collaboration with administrators within the National Health Service (NHS).

"We have an established record of working with central government, local authorities and NHS Trusts to develop and deliver world class services across the public sector," company spokesman Simon Duddy noted. "We will build on this experience to provide our public sector customers with new services and innovations to meet their fast-changing information needs, while delivering clear cost savings."

Iron Mountain's full portfolio of services is expected to be instrumental in helping the NHS achieve the objectives laid out in its most recent roadmap. According to the British Journal of Healthcare Computing, U.K. health administrators have been looking for assistance as they attempt to give patients more access and control to ensure they get the information and care they need. Most notably, the NHS will be implementing an electronic health record (EHR) system that will make all general practice medical records and test results available online by 2015.

Digitization and secure shredding of redundant records will likely make up the majority of Iron Mountain's contribution in this area, but the company may also be able to provide valuable consultory services as healthcare providers attempt to embrace innovation without overlooking or violating compliance protocol. Given the string of records breaches incurred by NHS facilities in the past year, securing patient information will be a top priority.