Identity Theft News

Octomom's medical records improperly accessed

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Hospital workers improperly accessed the medical records of Nadya Suleman, the mother who gave birth to octuplets at the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Bellflower, California in January. The hospital has since fired 15 employees.

The hospital also disciplined eight other employees for looking at Suleman's records, a company spokesman told CNN Monday.

"We always provide training on the importance of patient privacy and confidentiality," said Jim Anderson, CNN reported. "We knew from the time [Suleman] was admitted to the hospital in December, this case would attract attention. Numerous training sessions were held to remind people of the need to keep the information confidential."

The UCLA Medical Center had previously disciplined workers who accessed medical records of celebrities and sold them to tabloid newspapers, according to reports.

Data security experts said it is not clear form what the hospital has reported whether there was a failure of security systems or if employees with access to the records had simply violated protocol.

If the employees had access to the records but were not allowed to look at them at will, it would mean that the hospital at least had controls in place to detect a breach of patient health records.