A major hospital in Pennsylvania suspended its liver transplant program last week, becoming the second medical center to take such an unusual step this month.
Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center's hospital announced Monday that it has ended the program and submitted it for review by federal regulators. “The decision to deactivate was made after concerns regarding clinical processes and documentation were identified,” the hospital said in a statement.
It is unclear what specific problems caused the closure. But in interviews with The New York Times, six current and former employees said staff members routinely refused available organ donations for the program and that people on the waiting list received life-saving transplants. He said he expressed several concerns, including that he may not be able to receive medical treatment. Hospital officials declined to comment on the accusations.
Hershey's closure comes just weeks after Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center in Houston suspended its liver and kidney transplant program. The hospital told the Times that it believes one of its doctors manipulated records to make some of his patients ineligible for new liver transplants.
The spate of closures comes as a shock to a ported system where programs rarely go offline due to performance issues. There are 142 liver transplant programs operating in the United States, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, a federal contractor that oversees the nation's transplant system and is investigating the Hershey Medical Center issue.
“It's very unusual for it to happen twice in such a short period of time,” said Dr. Seth Karp, a transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt University and a former member of the transplant system committee that investigates possible misconduct. .
Hershey Medical Center has come under federal scrutiny in the past over safety issues. In 2022, The transplant surgery was canceled. It comes after examiners discovered the problems, including a series of transplant recipients who experienced medical problems that required additional surgeries.
About a year ago at the hospital announced that it had been hired Dr. Johnny Hong, former chief of transplant surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, announced the restart of the abdominal transplant program. However, the hospital performed only seven liver transplants last year and no kidney transplants, according to data released by the Organ Sharing Network.
During this period, 21 patients at the hospital who were waiting for liver or kidney transplants died or were taken off the waiting list because they were too unwell to receive a transplant; this is the highest number of transplants performed. This was a very high number compared to .
Current and former employees, who requested anonymity due to concerns about professional retaliation, said the transplant program routinely denied patients livers when they became available. In some cases, the program set criteria for acceptable organs so narrowly that it effectively eliminated the possibility of a match, employees said.
In the transplant system, when a donated liver becomes available, an algorithm creates a list of patients who need it most, and authorities follow that list to provide it to those patients' doctors. It is not uncommon for some doctors to say no. There are good reasons to do so. For example, if your doctor determines that your liver is not suitable for you because you are too old, too young, too large, too small, or have a disease.
However, the hospital got into trouble Because I said “no” too often. Federal officials say transplant centers are judged primarily on whether a patient survives at least a year after transplantation, making them overly sensitive when choosing which organs to accept and which patients to approve. He acknowledges there may be an incentive to be cautious.
If a doctor declines organ donation, there is no need to notify the patient.
At Hershey Medical Center, some employees have been expressing concerns about the transplant program for at least several months, according to current and former employees and hospital records. Faced with scrutiny from the United Network for Organ Sharing, the hospital chose to end its liver transplant program last week, officials said.
Hershey Medical Center on Monday sent information about the closure to 63 patients who are on the liver transplant waiting list or are being evaluated to be placed on the list, announcing that it is transferring patients to other hospitals. .
The hospital said the closure has not affected its kidney, heart, stem cell or bone marrow transplant programs.
Memorial Hermann in Texas said one of its doctors admitted to altering patient records to effectively prevent them from receiving transplants. The Times identified the doctor as noted surgeon J. Steve Bynon Jr. It's unclear why Dr. Bynon made the change.
Bynon, who works at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and has been contracted to lead Memorial Hermann's abdominal transplant program since 2011, has not commented on the allegations. UT Health Houston defended him as “an extremely talented and compassionate physician and a pioneer in abdominal organ transplantation.”
Since the issue became public on April 11th, Some patients' families are suing or have indicated they plan to sue. Dr. Bynon and the hospital. The hospital announced Monday that an investigation is ongoing. Dr. Bynon did not respond to requests for comment.
Susan C. Beachy Contributed to research.
