BELLFLOWER, Calif., March 31 (UPI) -- Sneaking peeks at the medical records of octuplet mom Nadya Suleman has gotten 15 California hospital workers fired, company officials say.
The Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Bellflower, Calif., 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," Jim Anderson told the broadcaster. "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 fired and disciplined employees "ran the gamut of medical staff," Anderson told the Los Angeles Times, adding that there was no indication the employees had shared the information with anyone outside the hospital or attempted to sell it.
The situation with Suleman is similar problems experienced at the UCLA Medical Center, where workers accessed medical records of celebrities and sold them to tabloid newspapers, the Times said.
Suleman, a single mother who lives in La Habra, Calif., has attracted worldwide controversy by giving birth to the octuplets through in vitro fertilization. She has six other children.
