[ISN] Kaiser fires 15 workers for snooping in octuplet mom's medical records

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 01:21:56 -0600 (CST)
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=security&articleId=9130827

By Jaikumar Vijayan
March 31, 2009
Computerworld

A Kaiser Permanente hospital located in a Los Angeles suburb has fired 
15 employees and reprimanded eight others for improperly accessing the 
personal medical records of Nadya Suleman, the California woman who gave 
birth to octuplets in January.

The unauthorized accessing of Suleman's electronic records at the 
medical center in Bellflower, Calif., violated a California law designed 
to safeguard the privacy of health care data, according to Kaiser 
spokesman Jim Anderson, who said the snooping incidents have been 
reported to the California Department of Public Health.

The improper activities were discovered as a result of increased network 
monitoring procedures that the hospital implemented in anticipation of 
the huge public interest in Suleman following the birth of the 
octuplets, Anderson said.

"We have known since she came into the hospital that at some point, this 
would be a fairly widely reported story," he said, adding that Kaiser 
also conducted extra training before Suleman was admitted to the 
hospital to remind employees about the importance of keeping patient 
data confidential.

[...]


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Received on Wed Apr 01 2009 - 00:21:56 PDT

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