Cedars-Sinai fires five over wrongfully accessing records

Following a high-profile birth at the facility, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has fired five workers and a student research assistant over privacy breaches involving patient medical records.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Cedars-Sinai officials said in a statement that 14 patient records were "inappropriately accessed" between June 18 and June 24. Six people were fired over the breach: four were employees of community physicians who have medical staff privileges at the hospital, one was a medical assistant employed by Cedars-Sinai and one was an unpaid student research assistant.

Reality television star Kim Kardashian gave birth to her daughter at the hospital on June 15. Reports don't reveal whose records were accessed but all patients involved have been notified of the breach.

Five of the workers accessed a single patient record; the other one looked at 14. The people involved will be permanently denied access to Cedars-Sinai records even if they go on to work for other health providers, the hospital said.

As a result of the incident, the hospital said it is providing more privacy training to physicians and adding extra "safeguards and redundancies" to the computer system's security.