UCLA Workers Fired for Peeking at Brit's Records

(Getty Images)

UCLA medical Center, which recently treated Britney Spears as a patient in its psych ward, has taken steps to fire at least 13 employees on Friday for allegedly snooping in her medical files.

The L.A. Times is reporting that at least six others have been suspended and an additional six doctors are facing discipline for looking at her computerized records.

Sources say all of the employees are being blamed for snooping in files that relate to Britney's past hospital stays, and not her most recent hospitalization on Jan.31.

Officials admitted that this is not the first time UCLA had disciplined workers for looking at Brit's files either. Several employees were caught snooping after the pop singer gave birth to her first son, Sean Preston, in 2005 at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center.

"It's not only surprising, it's very frustrating and it's very disappointing," said Jeri Simpson, the Santa Monica hospital's director of human resources. "I feel like we do everything that we possibly can to ensure the privacy of our patients and I know we feel horrible that it happened again."

UCLA officials said they sent a memo the morning Britney was hospitalized on Jan. 31, warning employees that they were not allowed to look at records unless directly caring for a patient.

Simpson said the hospital is used to treating 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." [Britney]

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