3 Chicago Hospitals Charged With Manipulating Liver Transplant Waiting List

Three of the four largest Chicago transplant centers have been accused by the federal and state governments of fraud for diagnosing some patients as more seriously ill than they were to get them a higher priority on the waiting list for donor livers.

The three institutions are the University of Chicago Hospitals, Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago.

"By falsely diagnosing patients and placing them in intensive care to make them appear more sick than they were, these three highly regarded medical centers made patients eligible for liver transplants ahead of others who were waiting for organs in the transplant region," said Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Two of the institutions -- the University of Chicago and Northwestern Memorial -- paid fines of $115,000 and $23,587 respectively to settle the charges without admitting or denying guilt. The government asked the U.S. District Court to force the University of Illinois, which has not settled, to pay $3 million.

Federal officials and a bioethics expert said they knew of no other case in which the government has accused hospitals of using fraud to boost patients ahead of others on the waiting list for organ transplants.

The charges grew out of a 1999 "whistle-blower" lawsuit filed by transplant surgeon Dr. Raymond Pollack, now at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, who will share in the fine proceeds.

Nearly 20,000 Americans are currently waiting for one of the approximately 5,000 cadaver livers that become available each year. Approximately 2,000 of those waiting died during the most recent year for which statistics are available.

"Organ donation can be a matter of life and death," said Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, whose office jointly filed suit with the federal government. "There is no room for fraud when it comes to deciding which patient receives an organ."

Other Sources: DHHS, Illinois Attorney General, Chicago Sun-Times