[ISN] Britney Spears: Hospital Workers Fired For Looking At Singer's Medical Records

From: InfoSec News (alerts@private)
Date: Mon Mar 17 2008 - 00:38:00 PST


http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1583480/20080314/spears_britney.jhtml

By Larry Carroll
MTV News
March 14, 2008

LOS ANGELES -- In the song "Leave Me Alone," imperiled pop star Britney 
Spears sang, "Leave me alone/ Let me live my life in peace." Now, she 
might want to sing those words to the medical workers on duty during her 
most recent hospital stay.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the UCLA Medical Center has 
launched an investigation into some 25 employees who peeked at the 
singer's confidential medical records during her late January/ early 
February stay in the psychiatric ward. This week, the hospital began the 
process of firing 13 employees, has suspended at least six more, and is 
considering discipline against six other physicians who looked at her 
computerized records.

"It's not only surprising," human resources director Jeri Simpson told 
the paper, adding that similar firings also followed Spears' 2005 stay, 
when she gave birth to her first child, Sean Preston. "It's very 
frustrating, and it's very disappointing.

"I feel like we do everything that we possibly can to ensure the privacy 
of our patients, and I know we feel horrible that it happened again," 
Simpson added, offering an apology to Spears. "I don't know what it is 
about this particular person."

UCLA confirmed that, in an attempt to keep this breach of ethics from 
occurring, officials had sent out a memo on the morning Spears was 
hospitalized. The memo reminded employees that they were only allowed to 
view their own patients' records and that doing otherwise violated a 
federal patient-privacy law called the Health Insurance Portability and 
Accountability Act.

"Each member of our workforce, which includes our physicians, faculty, 
employees, volunteers and students, is responsible to ensure that 
medical information is only accessed as required for treatment, for 
facilitating payment of a claim, or for supporting our healthcare 
operations," the memo read. "Please remember that any unauthorized 
access by a workforce member will be subject to disciplinary action, 
which could include termination."

During routine monitoring of inappropriate record-viewing, UCLA 
officials uncovered violations by both medical and nonmedical personnel 
involving Spears' records, following an electronic trail left by the 
employees.

In defense of the alleged tabloid-minded peepers, unions such as the 
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 
at UCLA are representing some of the health workers who've been told 
they're being fired. "We believe that the university has a 
responsibility to their patients," said Nicole Moore, the union's lead 
organizer. "But also their employees, to administer fair and consistent 
discipline to everybody, regardless of their position, whether it's a 
doctor who violated it or a certified nursing assistant."

In other parts of the country, celebs such as George Clooney have run 
into similar problems. The "Ocean's Eleven" star was hospitalized in 
October at New Jersey's Palisades Medical Center after a motorcycle 
accident, only to have more than two dozen employees of the hospital 
later suspended for looking at his confidential records.

Simpson added that UCLA treats non-Britney celebrities "all the time," 
insisting "you never hear about this."


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