New York Times
Copyright 2008 New York Times

LOS ANGELES — Even pop stars have a right to medical privacy.

The University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center where singer Britney Spears was hospitalized earlier this year is firing at least 13 employees and suspending six others for peeking into the star’s confidential medical records, The Los Angeles Times reports.

The newspaper also says six doctors face disciplinary action for peeking at Ms. Spears’s computerized records related to her recent stay there for psychiatric evaluation.

Ms. Spears’s medical privacy rights have been the subject of much discussion ever since Philip McGraw, also know as TV’s Dr. Phil, commented on the star after visiting her in the hospital. Although many viewed his comments as a professional breach, experts said privacy rules likely weren’t violated because Dr. Phil isn’t a licensed therapist, as I reported here.

But the rules do apply to the workers at the hospital where Ms. Spears was treated. In fact, on the Jan. 31 morning Ms. Spears was hospitalized, U.C.L.A. officials sent a memo reminding employees that they were not allowed to look at patient medical records unless the patient was directly in their care.

The Los Angeles Times reports that this isn’t the first time U.C.L.A. has disciplined workers for looking at Ms. Spears’s records. Several were caught prying after the singer gave birth to her first son in September 2005 at Santa Monica-U.C.L.A. Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital.

The newspaper quoted Jeri Simpson, the Santa Monica hospital’s director of human resources, who handled the discipline in the first instance. “It’s not only surprising, it’s very frustrating and it’s very disappointing,” Ms. Simpson told the paper.

Simpson said U.C.L.A. treats celebrities “all the time and you never hear about this.”

“I don’t know what it is about this particular person, I don’t know what it is about her,” she added, referring to Ms. Spears.

Medical and nonmedical employees are set to be disciplined, although no doctors were targeted for firing, the newspaper said, citing an unnamed source. There is no evidence that any employee leaked information to the media or sold it.

The state Department of Public Health said late Friday that it had opened an investigation of the hospital.