LOS ANGELES -- The hospital where Nadya Suleman gave birth to her famous octuplets has been fined $187,500 for failing to protect their medical privacy, according to California health officials.
It's the second time Kaiser Permanente's Bellflower hospital was fined under new legislation designed to protect patients' medical records.
The hospital was fined $250,000 in May for failing to keep employees from snooping in the Suleman's medical records.
The fine was the first penalty imposed and largest allowed under a new state law enacted last year after the widely publicized violations of privacy at UCLA Medical Center involving Farrah Fawcett, Britney Spears, California First Lady Maria Shriver and other celebrities.
"We are very concerned with violations of patient confidentiality and their potential harm to the residents of California," said Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health. "Medical privacy is a fundamental right and a critical component of quality medical care in California.
Kaiser Permanente spokesman Jim Anderson says an internal investigation found that eight Bellflower Medical Center employees improperly accessed four of the babies' records during the week after they were born on Jan. 26.
Four of those eight employees resigned in February for looking at Suleman's medical files, the hospital said. One more was fired, two employees resigned, and another was disciplined for looking at the babies' records, Anderson said.
Kaiser officials said a total of 27 people looked at either the mother's or the babies' records without authorization: Altogether, two were fired, nine were disciplined, and 16 resigned.
"We have no reason to believe that anyone gave this information to anyone else or the media," Anderson said. "The state followed up on our report and checked that we reported accurately."
Kaiser reported the violations connected to Suleman to the state in February and the violations connected to the four babies in late April. The public health officials issued their own report and announced the fines Thursday.
