When destroying electronic media, a health care provider must:

The correct answer highlights the necessity for health care providers to completely sanitize electronic media before disposal. This process is vital to ensure that all sensitive patient information is permanently destroyed and cannot be accessed or recovered by unauthorized individuals.

Sanitization of electronic media involves various methods such as physical destruction, overwriting data, or employing specialized software that effectively makes the data unrecoverable. This is particularly important in healthcare settings where patient confidentiality is paramount, and any breach can have serious legal and ethical consequences.

Other options, while related to data protection, do not sufficiently address the comprehensive requirement of sanitizing electronic media before disposal. Merely deleting files does not guarantee they cannot be recovered, which can pose a risk. Storing media for three years may be a requirement for record retention, but it does not address the disposal process itself. Lastly, sharing the destruction process with affected clients is not mandated as this could potentially compromise patient confidentiality and security. Therefore, completely sanitizing electronic media stands out as the most critical requirement for health care providers.