In spring 2024, Houston-based Memorial Hermann paused liver, kidney and pancreas transplants and transferred patients waiting on these transplants to other hospitals following a pattern of “irregularities with donor acceptance criteria.”
The head of Memorial Hermann’s abdominal transplant program, Steve Bynon, MD, admitted to manipulating patient records in the United Network for Organ Sharing database. In one case, he altered the donor acceptance criteria so a patient — who was hospitalized with sepsis — would be able to receive an organ only from a donor younger than 6 years old who weighed between 70 and 200 pounds, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Dr. Bynon is quoted as saying he took a “shortcut” to “ensure patients were safely transplanted,” according to inspection documents. Hospital officials told surveyors he made the changes because his patients were sick.
Memorial Hermann said it removed Dr. Bynon from his leadership position days after the OPTN informed the hospital of the issue.
The inappropriate changes to donor acceptance criteria were limited to the liver transplant program, but the hospital voluntarily halted its abdominal transplant program “given the shared physician leadership structure,” according to a statement shared with Becker’s.
Memorial Hermann said there is no time frame for reopening the program.
The hospital has submitted a corrective plan and is cooperating with the OPTN, UNOS, Texas Health and Human Services and CMS on the situation.
“While this designation unfortunately applies to all of the hospital’s transplant programs, it does not affect our ability to continue providing care to patients, including transplantation services,” the statement said. “Given that the OPTN only identified concerns with the liver program, we intend to continue operating the thoracic [lung and heart] transplant programs as normal.”
In addition to the altered donor criteria, the OPTN said it found “lack of communication among multidisciplinary teams and with patients, as well as a culture of intimidation and retaliation for reporting potential problems.”
In the last 19 years, the OPTN has designated only one other hospital as a “member not in good standing,” according to the Houston Chronicle.
