17 Facilities Cited For Privacy Breaches

At a time when concerns about patient privacy are regularly being raised by consumer advocates, the state’s hospital watchdog has been investigating and penalizing institutions with an approach that’s all but discreet. The California Department of Public Health has issued 22 citations against healthcare facilities for breaches of patient privacy so far this year -- a record since it began issuing penalties in 2009. But the agency tucked the information in a corner of its website so obscure that a CDPH public information officer asked a reporter to email him a link to the page in order to answer his questions.