15 workers fired for accessing octuplet mom's file

[Ghost in the Machine]

15 workers fired for accessing octuplet mom's file
Published: 3/31/09, 12:45 AM EDT
By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Fifteen hospital workers have been fired and another eight disciplined for looking at medical records of octuplet mother Nadya Suleman without permission, hospital officials said Monday.

Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center reported the violations of health care privacy laws to the state and has warned employees to keep away from Suleman's records unless they have a medical purpose, hospital spokesman Jim Anderson said.

"Despite the notoriety of this case, to us this person is a patient who deserves the privacy that all our patients get," Anderson said.

Anderson would not elaborate on how the other eight employees were reprimanded, saying only that the punishments were significant.


A similar privacy breach at UCLA hospitals led to celebrities' medical information getting leaked to tabloids in recent years, including details of Farrah Fawcett's cancer treatment showing up in the National Enquirer. An investigation there resulted in firings, suspensions and warnings for 165 hospital employees, ranging from doctors to orderlies.

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[JohnnyLib2]

1. Good.