Hospital fined for personal data snooping

SACRAMENTO, July 17 (UPI) -- California has fined a Kaiser Permanente hospital $187,500 for failing to prevent unauthorized snooping into personal data on octuplets born in January.

The California Department of Public Health fine against Kaiser's Bellflower (Calif.) Medical Center is the second levied against the hospital under new state law intended to strengthen confidentiality protections regarding medical records, the Sacramento Business Journal reported Thursday.

Both infractions involved patient records relating to the octuplets born to Nadya Suleman in January, the newspaper said.

The state fined Kaiser $250,000 in May when 21 patients and two doctors looked at Suleman's records. The fine announced Thursday was in response to eight hospital employees viewing medical records of four of the babies without authorization.

The eight improperly viewed the records between Jan. 26 -- when the babies were born -- and Feb. 3, Modern Healthcare reported.

Hospital spokesman Jim Anderson said there was no indication the employees improperly shared information with outside sources.

"To the best of our knowledge, this was individual curiosity getting the best of them," Anderson said.