Los Angeles County-based Harbor-UCLA Medical Center has fired the former head of its orthopedics department following a two-year investigation into misconduct allegations.
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Fires Ortho Surgeon
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The hospital’s investigation into the alleged misconduct by Louis Kwong, M.D. began in the fall of 2021. The following year Dr. Kwong was placed on paid leave while the investigation was conducted. This allowed Dr. Kwong to purportedly receive more than a million dollars during the time he was not working.
There are a number of misconduct allegations that led to Dr. Kwong’s termination, some of which involve alleged sexual misconduct over many years. Among these claims includes the assertion that Dr. Kwong would look at and commented on the genitalia of anesthetized patients.
In the discharge notice, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Griselda Gutierrez, M.D. reportedly said, “Your [Dr. Kwong] inappropriate, disparaging comments and actions were offensive, and created an uncomfortable, hostile, and demoralizing work environment for others.”
The discharge notice also claims that Dr. Kwong failed to disclose that he was being paid by medical device company Zimmer Biomet. Dr. Kwong purportedly received more than $700,000 from Zimmer Biomet which was never disclosed to the county. In addition to the payments, Dr. Kwong also allegedly flew on the Zimmer Biomet private plane to the company’s private headquarters.
Another issue that was highlighted in the discharge notice involved Dr. Kwong’s failure to disclose his alleged employment with the Lundquist Institute, a nearby research facility. The termination notice reportedly said, “Zimmer Biomet and Lundquist not only compensated you for your work but provided you with financial incentives for business referrals, which created a clear conflict of interest since the Department had contracts with them. Your [Dr. Kwong] decision to hide your employment with these companies for 6 years demonstrates your propensity for dishonesty.”
This matter is far from resolved. Dr. Kwong apparently disagrees with the decision to terminate his employment and recently filed an appeal with the Civil Service Commission.
In addition to his employment woes, Dr. Kwong is facing litigation involving his alleged misconduct. For OTW’s previous coverage of allegations against Dr. Kwong, see “LA County Ortho Surgeon Faces Sexual Misconduct Allegations.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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