When George Clooney hit the skids in New Jersey, did the local hospital staff sense pay dirt?
More than two dozen employees at Palisades Medical Center have been suspended pending an investigation into whether they leaked details about Clooney's condition to the press when the actor and his girlfriend were treated Sept. 21 after a motorcycle crash, New Jersey's WCBS-TV reported Tuesday.
News of Clooney's accident was speedily followed by reports of the injuries he and Sarah Larson suffered—a fractured rib and road rash for him, a broken foot for her. The couple only spent a few hours at the hospital.
But apparently, it was the forthcoming nature of all that supposedly confidential information that raised the red flags and prompted the inquiry.
Nearly 40 staff members, including doctors and nurses, have found themselves under the microscope. If anyone did in fact proffer information about their famous patient to the media, it was not only an ethical breach but a violation of federal law as well.
Sources told WCBS that, in addition to leaking info to reporters, employees with no health-related interest in the matter logged into Palisades' computer system to access Clooney's medical records and that a security guard gave the file number to a member of the actor's family.
A union spokesperson who represents some of the personnel under investigation told WCBS that, even if anyone is guilty as charged, he or she is already paying the piper, having been suspended without pay.
"It was inappropriate, but they are paying a steep price," said Jean Oterson of the HPAA. "But I don't even think George Clooney would want people to pay. Again, the apology to him for his privacy rights [is necessary], but I think in fact the hospital is overreacting."
And it turns out that Oterson was right.
Clooney, obviously no stranger to invasions of privacy and the lines people will cross to dig up dirt, said Tuesday that he isn't looking to get anybody fired.
"This is the first I've heard of it," the Michael Clayton star said in a statement after hearing about the investigation. "And while I very much believe in a patient's right to privacy, I would hope that this could be settled without suspending medical workers."