The group charged with administering the national organ transplant system is considering decertification of the liver program at St. Vincent Medical Center and plans an audit of all transplants performed there in the last five years, the hospital's top administrator told a confidential meeting of the medical staff.
St. Vincent President and Chief Executive Gus Valdespino told the doctors that the national group, the United Network for Organ Sharing, had found major lapses in oversight of the hospital's liver program, according to two people who attended the Oct. 5 meeting. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal by the hospital.
The Los Angeles hospital suspended liver transplants late last month after discovering that staff members, including doctors, had improperly arranged for a September 2003 transplant to a Saudi national who was 52nd on the regional waiting list, bypassing dozens of people whose conditions were considered more dire.
If the liver program loses its national certification, it could be shut down.
Separately, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, called Wednesday for an investigation into St. Vincent's program and the national system for overseeing organ distribution.
"I am glad that the problems at St. Vincent have been brought to light, but it should not have taken two years to discover that there was a problem," he wrote to Elizabeth Duke, administrator of the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.
"The integrity of the organ distribution system has got to be maintained," Grassley said in an interview. "Something is obviously wrong here."
In another development, a St. Vincent spokesman acknowledged to The Times last week that an employee had tried to report wrongdoing in the liver transplant program at the time of the improper transplant but was rebuffed.
"We had one employee who told investigators that he had mentioned concerns to his immediate supervisor in an informal way, and his impression was that the supervisor didn't want to hear about it," hospital spokesman Paul Silva said. "He filed no formal report on this and did not call our [ethics hotline], as far as we can tell, nor did the supervisor take any action, as far as we can tell."
Silva would not identify the supervisor or the employee. The supervisor no longer works at the Los Angeles hospital, but the employee does, he said.
