Nurse to head UCI hospital

UC Irvine on Wednesday appointed to head its medical center a registered nurse who spent 12 years as one of the hospital’s top administrators during a period in which it suffered a series of scandals, including one in which more than 30 patients on the liver transplant list died as the hospital turned down scores of organs that were then successfully transplanted elsewhere.

“After an exhaustive national search, we concluded that the best candidate was already in our midst,” said Dr. David N. Bailey, vice chancellor for health affairs, in a news release.

Maureen Zehntner has held the post of interim chief executive since 2005, but it is her association with the medical program’s troubled past that has led some to criticize the university for choosing one of its old guard at a time when it is trying to wipe clean its stained reputation.

“She was in no way involved with the past ills of the institution,” Bailey said.

“She was the one that led us into the new era.”

Bailey said the search attracted several dozen candidates but that Zehntner stood out because “she clearly espoused patient care” and had an “intimate knowledge of the operational aspects of this institution.”

Zehntner, 59, is not a physician and does not have an MBA.

Ken Janda, a UCI chemistry professor who was on a panel that two years ago investigated why the university’s medical programs became embroiled in so many scandals, said he thought the university waited so long to appoint Zehntner because of her lack of the usual bona fides.

“Even though she seems to be doing the job very well, she doesn’t have the normal credentials for the job,” he said. “She’s a nurse, and doctors would rather have doctors running it.”

Zehntner defended her qualifications, saying her work at several Orange County hospitals had taught her to put patients’ interests first.

“I started at the lowest level. I was at the bedside,” she said. “I’m passionate about the work that physicians and nurses do on behalf of patients.”

She was the medical center’s chief operating officer from 1996 to 2005. In her new job she will earn $555,000 a year, a 22% increase in salary, along with bonuses and a car allowance.

Zehntner will oversee the completion of the university’s new $635-million hospital, expected to open next year.

The hospital, in Orange, faced a series of scandals while Zehntner was chief operating officer. In 1999, the university found that the medical school’s Willed Body Program had sold parts of cadavers, misappropriated money and conducted unauthorized autopsies. In 2004 UCI officials learned that Dr. Hoda Anton-Culver misspent as much as $2.3 million in state and federal funds on unauthorized software instead of on cancer research.

The hospital came under intense scrutiny by federal regulators and the news media after problems in the liver transplant program came to light. More failings were revealed, including shortcomings in the hospital’s bone marrow and kidney transplant programs. Anesthesiologists complained of patient safety issues. Cardiologists raised concerns about the credentials of the division’s chief and associate chief.

Before Zehntner joined UCI, it was revealed in 1995 that fertility doctors had stolen patients’ eggs and embryos and implanted them into other women.

The five-person panel that investigated the reasons for the hospital’s continuing problems said in its 2006 report that its abilities did not match its ambitions. The report also repeatedly cited a lack of accountability at the medical center as an alarming issue and said hospital executives had bucked responsibility and misled regulators to downplay the seriousness of problems.

Zehntner’s predecessor, Dr. Ralph Cygan, resigned under pressure in January 2006. He provided false information to keep the troubled liver transplant unit running, according to a federal government document released in 2005.

Four months later, Thomas Cesario, dean of the medical school, also stepped down.

Zehntner faced questions herself about nepotism in the hiring of her sister, brother and cousin by the medical center.

A UCI investigation found no evidence that Zehntner played a role in their hiring. But Iris Ingram, then an associate dean in the School of Medicine, said in a 2006 interview that she had hired Zehntner’s sister on Zehntner’s recommendation.

On Wednesday, Zehntner laughed when asked about the nepotism claims.

“Just because I work there, does that mean that no one I know can work here?” she said, denying the allegations.

In the fallout from the liver transplant scandal, UCI in 2006 created two positions to improve oversight in its medical programs.

Last March, Bailey, a former interim vice chancellor for health sciences at UC San Diego, began a new position overseeing the medical school, where he is also the dean, and the hospital.

C. Kerry Fields, a USC professor of clinical finance and business economics, in an e-mail called Zehntner a “fine choice.”

“The underlying question is whether she will institute accountability and transparency within the administration’s decision-making. She will need to have the moral leadership to change the culture of the institution.”

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tony.barboza@latimes.com

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Times researcher Robin Mayper contributed to this report.