Hospital Halts Fertility Clinic Negotiations in Wake of Probe : Medicine: Fountain Valley facility severs talks with doctors operating UCI’s Center for Reproductive Health after learning that their research practices are under investigation.

Officials at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center said Wednesday that they have halted negotiations to open a fertility clinic after learning about investigations into the research practices of the doctors with whom they had planned to affiliate.

“We are not in any further discussions” with the doctors who operate UC Irvine’s Center for Reproductive Health, said Dr. Richard E. Butler, chief executive officer at the Fountain Valley hospital.

In view of the investigations, Butler said, “there are a lot of liability and clinical issues we need to discuss.” He said the hospital’s obstetrics department will meet early next month to decide whether to resume negotiations.

Meanwhile, the renowned fertility doctors with whom hospital officials had been talking--Ricardo Asch, Jose Balmaceda and Sergio Stone--are being forced to move their clinic off the grounds of UCI Medical Center in Orange by June 2. University officials have terminated their five-year affiliation with the clinic.

This week, it was disclosed that the National Institutes of Health and UCI are investigating allegations that the fertility center doctors had been conducting various medical experiments without patients’ consent and without required approval from the university’s review board.

On Tuesday, the university sued the physicians, accusing them of destroying and withholding evidence needed in the investigation and of asking former patients to sign consent forms after research was completed. According to court documents, one woman alleged that Asch last month asked her to sign a form consenting to the donation of eggs that were extracted from her in 1993.

Lawyers for some of the doctors have denied any intentional wrongdoing by their clients. Asch’s lawyer, David Brown, compared the university’s attempts to collect the doctors’ records to a “witch hunt,” contending that the records are confidential.

After June 2, the fertility group will treat patients at its satellite clinic at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills but will no longer have a clinic in central Orange County, Butler said.

Butler said that Fountain Valley Regional Hospital had agreed to lease space to the doctors in an office building next to the hospital, beginning in June. But he added that the space is not large enough or adequately equipped to house a full-fledged clinic where in-vitro procedures can be performed.

The broken negotiations had been to form a partnership to operate a clinic.

Diane Wyzga, an attorney for Balmaceda, said Wednesday that the doctors had believed they would be able to move their clinical practice from UCI to Fountain Valley and had not known about the hospital’s hesitation.

“This piece of information is really surprising,” she said.

But Butler said the negotiations, which had been underway for about eight months, came to an abrupt halt two weeks ago when Stone, the medical group’s main negotiator with Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, disclosed to him that the fertility center was being investigated.

Butler said that physicians at the hospital, which had been considering establishing a fertility clinic for two years, last year picked the UCI group as their first choice for potential partners.

The doctors’ practice at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center is not in jeopardy, said Nolan Draney, the hospital’s chief operating officer.

He said the fertility group, led by Asch, is an independent practice that contracts with the hospital for management services.

“We are not aware of any wrongdoing,” Draney said. “Until I know the substance of the investigations, I have to assume they have a legitimate operation. . . . They have helped a lot of people who were otherwise childless. I think that is laudable.”