Bellflower Hospital in Los Angeles

Curiosity is an addiction, it seems.
Despite warnings and refresher courses in patient privacy laws,
nearly two dozen employees of Bellflower Hospital in Los Angeles have
been fired or disciplined for snooping in the medical records of
Nadya Suleman, the woman who gave birth to octuplets earlier this
year. According to Kaiser Permanente, the employees who accessed the
computer files "ran the gamut of medical staff".

There is no indication that hospital
staff sold the information or passed it on to others. “You can only
guess that this was human nature and curiosity that got the best of
people," said a Kaiser Permanente spokesman.

This is not the first time that
hospital employees In LA have invaded a celebrity patient’s privacy.
Last
year UCLA Hospital fired a number of staff after they looked at
the records of former starlet Farrah Fawcett and pop star Britney
Spears. ~ Los
Angeles Times, Mar 30

• Author
• Recent Posts

Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

Latest posts by Michael Cook (see all)

• How long can you put off seeing the doctor because of lockdowns? - December 3, 2021
• House of Lords debates assisted suicide—again - October 28, 2021
• Spanish government tries to restrict conscientious objection - October 28, 2021