Ind Arc
Southern California - this just in
From the staff of the Los Angeles Times and…
 

| Main |

This just in: UCLA Med Center firing 13 for snooping in Britney Spears' records

2:07 PM | March 14, 2008

Ucla_medical_center_4 They were warned and they didn't listen.

Within days of being told of the legal perils of snooping in to pop star Britney Spears' medical records, 13 employees of the UCLA Medical Center did just that, and are being fired. Six doctors also face disciplinary action, Charles Ornstein reports.

UCLA sent a memo warning staffers the morning Spears was hospitalized on Jan. 31 that they were not allowed to peruse records unless directly caring for a patient. Doing so is considered a violation of a federal patient privacy law called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which went into effect in 2003.

The records reviewed by those who were fired were not from Spears’ most recent hospital stay, but rather from previous hospitalizations at UCLA, a source familiar with the matter said. Those disciplined include both medical and non-medical personnel, although no doctors were among those fired, the person said.

This isn't the first such incident. Workers caught sneaking a peek at her files after she gave birth to her first child in 2005 also were fired.

How they were caught, reaction from hospital brass -- full story here.

--Veronique de Turenne

Photo - GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP / Getty Images

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c630a53ef00e551339cf48834

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference This just in: UCLA Med Center firing 13 for snooping in Britney Spears' records:

Comments

FIRE THE DOCTORS TOO....OR YOU SHOULD GET SUED

HIPAA also requires hospitals to track incidents of disclosures of protected health information (i.e. the hospital must keep track of who looks at patient records). With ever advancing technology, the viewing as well as the tracking of such disclosures is probably complete electronically.

Given that UCLA tracked the identity of the employees who snooped by their computer ids, they could institute firewalls to prevent these sort of intrusions from ever occurring. When a celebrity comes for treatment, their records can be tagged so as to only be accessible by the treating physician and a few assigned nurses, not every healthcare provider on staff. There can be extra steps involved too, like pop up windows that confirm by answer that the doctor/nurse as to why they looking at the celebrity's record (e.g. need to check blood type, etc.). If they don't have a specific reason, they too are blocked. This can ferret out the snoop pretty fast and prevent others from trying.

Lori -

The full story does have the details you're looking for - just click the link. The blog post is a web alert to tell you the basics.

Veronique

good that they got fired.
theres plenty more where they came from.

alot of medical people do it , as a form of entertainment . my issue is a double standard in the fact that why are there any docotors fired. it should be made a felony to do so and they should lose their license and be prosecuted. the concept of proffesional behavior is a joke these days. this has become a form of entertainment for the medical community.


peter

so much about doctor patient confidentuality.

i'm sure they got paid lots of money from the paps for snooping. they probably figured the risk was worth it.

Leave the girl alone for god sake - let her get back to doing what she does best - PERFORMING..... so she can provide for her KIDS and looser ex-husband who just used her for money and attached himself to her forever financially by convincing her to have his children. She WILL get custody back and PAY BACK is a b....

Good - fire them.

Problem then is, if ANY Doctor did the same thing, they MUST be fired also.
But we all know the next problem - any Doctor that 'looked' in on these files will be covered up - they will band together and say they were being asked for second opinions.

Reality is, business as usual - no Doctor will be fired.

glad to see UCLA is doing the right thing by firing people for breaking the law.

you said in your report that 6 UCLA physicians were disciplined. why did you not name them in your story? if the broke the law, they should be outed. simple. let the public know who those doctors are so we, the public, can stay away from docs like them.

a reader in LA

I'd like to know how the medical center knew. Poorly written story not to tell us how they were caught.

so what

Post a comment
If you are under 13 years of age you may read this message board, but you may not participate.
Here are the full legal terms you agree to by using this comment form.

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until they've been approved.

If you have a TypeKey or TypePad account, please Sign In





Advertisement


Overheard
People would feel much happier about their city if they actually had public spaces and public transport they could rely on.
 
- Mark, on a Times poll in which about 40% of L.A. voters said that they'd "seriously thought about moving out of Los Angeles" in the past two years
 





Advertisement


 

Lakers: All things purple and gold
L.A. Land: Real estate news and insights
Up to Speed: L.A. car culture
Daily Travel & Deal Blog: For restless SoCal
Daily Dish: Inside scoop on food in L.A.
The Daily Mirror: L.A. crime 50 years ago
Jacket Copy : Book news and information
Culture Monster: All the arts, all the time
To Live and Buy in LA : Finding the best values online & in stores
Hero Complex : News on genre films, graphic novels, and science fiction
Pop & Hiss: The L.A. Times music blog
Show Tracker: What you're watching
Greenspace: Environmental news from California and beyond
Booster Shots : Oddities, musings and some news from the world of health
Outposts: Getting the most from the great outdoors
L.A. Unleashed: All things animal in Southern California and beyond
Money & Company: Tracking the market and economic trends
The Movable Buffet: Dispatches from Las Vegas
Technology : The business and culture of our digital lives
The Fabulous Forum: The who, what, where, when, why and why not of L.A. sports
Dodger Thoughts: Jon Weisman's daily Dodger discussions

 

Atwater Village Newbie
blogdowntown
Calbuzz
CaliforniaAuthors.com
The Canalis Report (Long Beach Press-Telegram)
Capitol Weekly
Curbed Los Angeles
Eating L.A.
The Eastsider LA
The Elegant Variation
Fast Food Maven (OC Register)
The Foothill Cities Blog
Deadline Hollywood
Downtown News
FishbowlLA
Franklin Avenue
Jewish Journal
LA Metblogs
LA Observed
LA Taco
LA.Streets Blog
Los Angeles Fire Department blog
Malibu Surfside News
Mayor Sam
Neon Tommy
Dan Walters (Sacramento Bee)
Daniel Weintraub (Sacramento Bee)
The Sausage Factory (L.A. Daily News)
Science Dude (OC Register)
Seal Beach Daily
The Volokh Conspiracy
Ron Kaye L.A.
 


LOCAL FEEDS

Times Community Newspapers:
Burbank Leader
Newport Beach: Daily Pilot
Laguna Beach: Coastline Pilot

Huntington Beach Independent
Glendale News Press