UCI Chancellor Slowed Fertility Scandal Audit

Despite mounting evidence of improper human egg transfers at UC Irvine’s famed fertility clinic, Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening told auditors to hold off pursuing the allegations in May, 1994, according to confidential university documents.

The documents contradict Wilkening’s statements about when she first learned of the improper egg transfers and raise questions about her role in the unfolding scandal.

Wilkening conceded in an interview Tuesday that she had been “maybe not consistent” in her previous accounts of how the investigation proceeded at UCI’s Center for Reproductive Health. She had previously said in interviews that she learned of the charges in July, 1994.

Wilkening said she put off the auditors because she didn’t think they could “get the information they needed” to investigate the medical allegations and because she wanted advice on whether outside agencies should be brought in to look at charges that the center administered unapproved fertility drugs.

But, Wilkening added, “I never gave the auditors a stop work order.”

“The allegations were not sufficiently strong enough for the medical staff to take it seriously in April or May,” she said.

Andrew Yeilding, UCI’s internal auditor, confirmed Tuesday that he had records around late April, 1994, that detailed egg transfers that may have been made without patient consent. Yeilding said he was told by Wilkening’s attorney to stop vigorously pursuing the investigation.

Yeilding said that to this day he is “not sure” why his office was not supported in its pursuit of the allegations, but that internal auditors continued to investigate center director Dr. Ricardo H. Asch and colleagues until auditors were ordered off the medical center grounds in October.

State Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Santa Monica, called the information “startling.”

“If it’s true that the chancellor heard in 1994 about the allegations and counseled not to press Dr. Asch hard, as she said, for more records, I think an explanation is necessary,” Hayden, who heads a Senate committee probing the scandal, said Tuesday. “It puts the chancellor of UC Irvine in the chain of responsibility for the first time and at a rather early date when something could and should have been done about this.”

The university has accused Asch and two colleagues of taking eggs without consent from patients and then implanting the eggs in other women who could not become pregnant on their own. UCI officials allege that 35 instances of egg misuse occurred dating back to 1988, resulting in at least seven live births. Asch and his partners have denied knowingly doing anything wrong.

Wilkening confirmed that she knew of the egg misuse allegations in April or May of 1994, but said they were not substantiated enough for her to take more serious action. Wilkening told The Times in an interview three weeks ago that she did not learn of the allegations until July 1994.

Wilkening said that she didn’t think they would be able to get the necessary medical records from Asch. She said she believed the university’s medical college dean might be able to pressure Asch into providing medical charts. The university still does not have the charts, she said.

Wilkening said she did not know who approved removing internal auditors from the medical center. Yeilding said the auditors have been unable to do audits of any kind at the center since last fall.

“I think it was very inappropriate and I don’t why that happened,” Wilkening said of the auditors’ removal.

Letters and memos to Wilkening’s attorney, Diane Geocaris, show that Yeilding urged top officials to meet the allegations head-on on April 28, 1994. The auditor had drafted letters that he suggested be sent to seven employees of the Center for Reproductive Health guaranteeing their protection from reprisal if they cooperated with the inquiry.

Yeilding said Tuesday that he had forwarded copies of the letters to Wilkening’s office for her signature, but the letters were never sent to workers.

The auditor also wrote that the university should flatly assert to Asch that “the university has access and we no longer are going to discuss the issue of access to records with him, his partners, his attorney, etc.”

Yeilding’s notes make clear that university officials at the highest level knew in the spring of 1994 what medical center employees were alleging about Asch.

Yeilding wrote that he was told by Geocaris in a telephone call in May, 1994, that auditors “should not go back to Dr. Asch and press him hard for any additional records at this time.” Geocaris told Yeilding that she had discussed the allegations with the chancellor, according to the auditor’s notes of the conversation.

Geocaris, who was traveling Tuesday, could not be reached for comment.

Wilkening wanted to first meet with the dean of the College of Medicine, Yeilding wrote, and “wants to wait for general counsel [John Lundberg’s] input on these matters.”

Finally, Yeilding said Geocaris told him, “The chancellor will assess the situation and may prefer to let outside agencies deal with the possible problems in the allegations.”

Even after internal auditors were told to hold off, Yeilding sent another letter to Geocaris detailing the documentation auditors had assembled, including further allegations that “egg transfer procedures are being conducted on some patients without patient consent. (Several patient names were provided.)”

Yeilding said auditors had some biologist records that showed questionable transfers and he asked to “expand the scope of the audit field work” to secure patient consent forms and other medical records.

The breadth of Yeilding’s April and May, 1994, memos contradict comments by UCI Executive Vice Chancellor Sidney Golub, who told The Times in a May interview that until last September, officials had little more than “vague, unsubstantiated” allegations.

“At no time did we try to suppress the truth,” Golub said at the time. “At no time did we try to avoid investigation of this tough issue.”

Debra Krahel, whose whistle-blower letters in July and September, 1994, forced the university to launch new probes, said Tuesday the auditor’s documents validate her contention that the university was loathe to uncover damaging evidence against their prized fertility experts.

Krahel said she was not interviewed for UCI’s formal investigation until January--seven months after internal audit’s letters--and that she was the first witness interviewed.

“The auditors were very diligent in their pursuit and tried a number of different avenues to gain support of executive management,” Krahel said. “That support never seemed to materialize.”

Wilkening said that university administrators acted responsibly, but their efforts were stymied by lack of cooperation from the doctors.

Additional records provided by UCI Tuesday show that the auditors had continued to investigate during the summer of 1994 with help from the university. In notes from a July meeting with Asch, Geocaris warned the doctor, “don’t trash records.”

* COUPLE WANTS JUSTICE: They say four eggs stolen, ask criminal charges be filed. B4