St. Vincent Medical Center president and chief executive Gus Valdespino says they have ended the program due to competitive pressures. The federal government has withdrawn its certification for the program, making the hospital ineligible to receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements for liver transplants.
"The resources, the energy, the attention that would need to be devoted to restoring the program, we thought it would be detrimental and would take us away from continuing to focus on the core programs here," says Valdespino.
The dispute began after doctors performed the inappropriate transplant on a Saudi Arabian citizen, which was number 52 on a transplant list.
Transplants are usually based on who is sickest and been waiting the longest.
Hospital staff subsequently forged documents in attempts to cover up the transplant.
