Britney's Hospital Fires Nosy Employees, UCLA Med Center Embarrassed By 2nd Snooping Incident Involving Pop Star's Records

LOS ANGELES, March 14, 2008

Security guards stand outside of the ambulance entrance to the at the UCLA Medical Center emergency room in Los Angeles on Jan. 31, 2008. Britney Spears was taken from her home by ambulance early that morning and escorted to the hospital by more than a dozen police officers. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)

(AP) UCLA Medical Center will fire some employees and discipline others for snooping at the confidential medical records of Britney Spears, who was hospitalized in its psychiatric ward, a hospital official told The Associated Press.

Jeri Simpson, the hospital's director of human resources who was involved in the investigations of the confidentiality breach, confirmed the action but could not say how many employees were affected. The hospital did not say when the snooping took place or which of Spears records were looked at.

The Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site Friday that the breaches stemmed from incidents before Spears' most recent hospitalization, but did not elaborate.

The newspaper said more than 13 employees, none of whom are doctors, would be fired. Twelve others, including several doctors, will be disciplined otherwise for looking at her computerized records, it reported.

This is not the first time the hospital has had to reprimand employees for looking at Spears' records. Several workers were fired after they were caught snooping after Spears gave birth to her first son, Sean Preston, in September 2005.

"It's not only surprising, it's very frustrating and it's very disappointing," Simpson told the newspaper, adding that she felt "horrible" that it happened again.

Spears was admitted to the hospital twice in January under a state law allowing patients to be held against their will for up to 72 hours for evaluation if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others. On her second trip to the medical center, Spears stayed for nearly a week.

Leading up to the hospitalizations, Spears had been behaving bizarrely. She shaved her head, was seen in public without underwear, ran over a celebrity photographer's foot and attacked a vehicle with an umbrella.

After her Feb. 6 release, a judge placed Spears and her estate under a temporary conservatorship. Conservatorships are granted for people deemed unable to take care of themselves or their affairs.

Spears has since had very limited contact with her toddler sons who are under the sole physical and legal custody of her ex-husband Kevin Federline.