Shriver, a former contributing anchor to Dateline NBC and niece of President Kennedy, could not be reached Sunday.
In a statement, Schwarzenegger said that "a breach of any patient's medical records is outrageous" and that he had called on his administration to take action after the first incident -- Spears' case -- was reported last month.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday, April 08, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 44 words Type of Material: Correction
UCLA: A Section A article Monday on breaches of the private files of UCLA patients said Dr. David Feinberg joined UCLA in July. He became chief executive of the UCLA Hospital System in July; before that he was medical director of UCLA's neuropsychiatric hospital.
"Patients' medical records should be private -- period," Schwarzenegger said. "No one should have to worry that an unauthorized person is reviewing their private medical records."
Kathleen Billingsley, deputy director of the state Department of Public Health's Center for Healthcare Quality, said the state learned about the Spears breach from the newspaper, not from UCLA, and was notified of the Fawcett incident only after a Times reporter asked questions of the hospital.
UCLA did not share information on the violations it had discovered the previous May until an inspector discovered the document with the names of those affected, Billingsley said.
Feinberg said his staff believed that it had to report to the state only "unusual occurrences" that related to direct patient care.
"Historically, that has meant terrible types of medical errors, etc., not somebody looking at a chart that they weren't supposed to," he said.
Belshe said her agency was reviewing whether the state needed tougher sanctions for violations of patient privacy or other tools to hold hospitals accountable.
"It is a fundamental responsibility of a health facility to provide for the health and safety of their patients and maintain the confidentiality of their medical records," Belshe said. "That is as true for John Q. Public as it is for Maria Shriver and any other individual in our state."
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charles.ornstein@latimes.com
dan.morain@latimes.com
