According to the LA Times, five workers and a student research assistant were fired in the wake of a patient privacy breach affecting the patient medical records of 14 patients.
According to a statement released by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the 14 patient records were “inappropriately accessed” between June 18 and June 24. Four of those fired over the breach were employees of local physicians with medical staff privileges at the hospital, one was a medical assistant, and one was an unpaid student research assistant.
Though the identities of patients have not been released, it should be noted that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West gave birth to their daughter at the hospital on June 15th. Most of the fired employees looked at a single record. I think it’s safe to assume the wanted to be “in the know”.
Kudos to the privacy team at Cedars-Sinai for detecting the breach and dealing with it swiftly. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandates that steps be taken to ensure compliance with the privacy and security rules. It appears that the controls. though breached, were configured in such a way that the unauthorized and inappropriate access could be monitored and detected.
