Hospital liver transplant program suspended after 32 die waiting

Following reports in the media that a Southern California hospital had suspended its liver transplant program and had turned down scores of donor organs while 32 patients awaiting transplants had died, the facility has had it's certification of the liver transplant program revoked.

The University of California at Irvine Medical Center in Orange, south of Los Angeles, issued a statement late on Thursday saying the U.S. government had revoked its certification of the liver transplant program, denying further Medicare reimbursements for such operations.

UCI Medical Center Chief Executive Dr. Ralph Cygan says they are profoundly disappointed by the action, as prior to the announcement, the university had committed tremendous time and resources to strengthen the program.

It appears that the 106 patients now on UCI's liver transplant waiting list will be transferred to other hospitals.

The loss of accreditation and suspension of the program came shortly after an article was published in the media listing numerous deficiencies found by federal inspectors in a report obtained under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

According to the report by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 32 people died waiting for liver transplants at UCI in the past two years while it turned down scores of donated organs that might have saved them.

The federal report apparently also found UCI had performed just five liver transplants this year and no more than eight a year from 2002 through 2004, well below the minimum number of 12 required to maintain federal funding.

It was also found in the report that the one-year survival rate of UCI liver transplant recipients fell below the 77 percent minimum needed for certification, and the program failed to keep a transplant surgeon available full-time as required.

It seems the federal review may have been prompted by a complaint from a former UCI patient who had been on the transplant list from 1998 to 2002 and ultimately underwent a transplant at another hospital.

It was this patient who discovered that the UCI had turned down 38 livers and 57 kidneys offered on her behalf.

UCI becomes the second hospital in the region to close its liver transplant program in the past two months.

St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles also stopped its program in September after admitting that a Saudi patient had been promoted to the top of the waiting list and that the hospital falsified data to cover it up.

At present only four adult liver transplant programs now operate in the region, all with long waiting lists.