A major teaching hospital in L.A. County has fired one of its highest-ranking doctors after a two-year investigation found that he routinely looked at the genitals of anesthetized patients and never told them how. He was being paid by a medical device company whose products he used. Patient.
Staff members at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a public hospital run by the county, told investigators that Dr. Lewis Kwong sometimes looked under the surgical covers of black men who were under anesthesia and observed what he described as “the genitals of the day.” Used to discuss. The discharge notice, which was obtained by The Times.
Kwong also discussed her favorite sex positions and her preference for “auto-erotic asphyxiation,” her colleagues told investigators.
Additionally, investigators found that Kwong, an orthopedic surgeon, received more than $700,000 from Zimmer Biomet, a medical device company that performs joint replacements, without reporting the conflict of interest to the county. According to the February 27 notice in which he was informed of his dismissal, he flew twice on the company’s private plane to the Indiana headquarters with the hospital’s medical residents.
According to a lawsuit filed by colleagues in October, the discharge notice made no mention of the gun that Kwong, a volunteer deputy sheriff, allegedly took into the operating room and other parts of the hospital. The notice states that he violated county policy by bringing a personal knife into the operating room on at least one occasion.
“Your inappropriate, disrespectful comments and actions were offensive, and created an uncomfortable, hostile, and discouraging work environment for others,” Griselda Gutierrez, the hospital’s chief medical officer, wrote in the notice.
Much of the misconduct described in the notice was reported to the county years ago, raising questions about inaction from hospital leaders. Kwong’s secretary complained more than a decade ago that her boss used to comment on grooming the pubic hair of anesthetized patients, The Times previously reported, According to emails reviewed by The Times, a doctor informed the health department’s chief medical officer in 2016 about Kwong’s conflict of interest with Zimmer Biomet.
Yet the hospital did not launch an investigation until 2021, when it said the allegations against Kwong were “officially reported” for the first time. Kwong was placed on paid leave the following spring as Shepard Mullin, a law firm hired by the county, spent more than two years investigating her.
County policy requires departments in most cases to continue paying an employee who is on leave during an investigation. The slow pace allowed Kwong to receive over a million dollars without working. In 2023 — a year in which Kwong did not work a day — he was the eighth-highest-paid county employee, according to salary records posted this month.
According to his discharge notice, between 2021 and 2023, the county received seven more complaints about Kwong. Harbor-UCLA, which treats largely poor and uninsured patients from around the South Bay, has been on probation since last summer after residents complained to an organization about “unprofessional and toxic practices” in the orthopedics department. Environment, which oversees the teaching hospitals of Kwong. presided over. The hospital is one of only six teaching hospitals across the country that is on probation.
Kwong appealed his dismissal on March 20 to the Civil Service Commission, a county body that can overturn disciplinary decisions. In a letter to the commission, Kwong’s attorney said his client denied or had any recollection of almost all allegations of inappropriate conduct and believed he was accused of being the county’s “scapegoat.” There is danger.
“Dr. Kwong disagrees with the county’s decision to terminate his employment and denies the fabricated allegations against him,” attorney Michelle Finkel Ferber wrote in an email to The Times. “Dr. Kwong looks forward to defeating these sensational claims, not in the press, but through the appeals process.
Dr. Lewis Kwong regularly brought a gun to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, according to lawsuits filed this October by three doctors at the teaching hospital.
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In addition to his consulting work for Zimmer Biomet, Kwong was disbarred by the county for not disclosing his employment at the Lundquist Institute, a private research facility next to Harbor UCLA. Many Harbor Doctors also work as scientists at the institute.
“Zimmer Biomet and Lundquist not only compensated you for your work, but also provided you with financial incentives for business referrals, creating a clear conflict of interest because the Department had a contract with them,” the notice said. “Your decision to conceal your employment with these companies for 6 years reflects your propensity for dishonesty.”
In a letter appealing for Kwong’s release, Ferber said that his client was never compensated by the Lundquist Institute, and “had no intention of hiding the relationship with Zimmer Biomet.” The lack of disclosure was based on a misunderstanding of county policy, the attorney wrote.
The letter also said Kwong preferred the Zimmer Biomet devices over other implants “based on their clinical records and performance outcomes.”
“Kwang’s decisions regarding implant choice are governed by what best meets the patient’s reconstructive needs,” the letter said.
Some doctors say Kwong’s connections to both the Lundquist Institute and Zimmer Biomet were hardly a secret. Until recently, searching for “Dr.” Was searched for. Louis Kwang” brought up his page on the Lundquist Institute’s site as one of the first results. According to the discharge notice, Kwang was also listed as an “affiliated doctor” on Zimmer Biomet’s website.
The Lundquist Institute has since removed Kwong’s page. The Times could no longer find Kwong on Zimmer Biomet’s website.
According to the discharge notice, county internal investigators began investigating Kwong’s relationship with Zimmer Biomet following a complaint in 2021. But emails obtained by the Times show the issue was flagged to the county five years ago.
On July 26, 2016, former Harbor-UCLA doctor Tim Ryan, who has since filed a lawsuit against County emailed screenshots to multiple coworkers ProPublica’s dollars for docs The portal, which shows payments made to doctors by medical device companies.
Ryan sent entries to several county doctors, including Kwong, that showed he had received payments from Zimmer Biomet.
Ryan’s email was forwarded to Hal Yee, chief medical officer of the Department of Health Services.
“Let’s discuss,” Yi replied. “I am concerned about both (the conflict of interest) and the failure to disclose.”
The Department of Health Services did not immediately respond to questions about steps taken to follow up.
Two years later, Kwang posted a photo of himself and his occupants in front of a small plane on his Facebook page, writing that he was flying to Warsaw, India, where Zimmer Biomet is headquartered.
The same image was later posted on a bulletin board in the harbor, according to a photo of the board seen by The Times.
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, which serves as a safety net for poor and uninsured patients from around the South Bay, has been on probation since last summer.
(Gina Frazee/Los Angeles Times)
After joining County in 2007, Kwong joined the orthopedic department and assumed the important responsibilities of department chair and program director for residents. According to his discharge notice, he received glowing reviews of his performance over the past two years on the job, with evaluators noting that he had “performed far beyond expectations.”
But his rise was hampered by complaints that were often ignored.
In 2013, Maria Garibay, then medical secretary, told the county’s human resources department that Kwong would discuss with his staff the women he operated on and “variations in which they would prepare their pubic areas.” Are.” In 2019, a medical student accused Kwong of peering “under the hood” and entering an operating room to view a patient’s genitalia. The comments posted on a site used to rate orthopedic programs were flagged to the hospital’s director of risk management, who responded that they had “started working on it.”
Some doctors say the 10-year delay in addressing complaints not only endangered the hospital but allowed a culture filled with racism and inappropriate behavior to flourish.
According to Kwong’s discharge notice, three people told investigators that residents referred to black patients as BAP, which reportedly stood for “Black Angry Patients.” Two doctors said Kwong compared the two Black residency candidates as “brother versus brother.” The notice said that during one meeting, a resident said that a black candidate “looked like he raped the cheerleaders.” Another doctor used a racial slur in a text message.
The notice also paints a picture of a department with a locker-room atmosphere, where Kwang and some of his staff focused on patients’ genitals.
One doctor told investigators that male genitalia were shown at the annual “roast” at the end of the year, where “it was commented that some of the female residents liked it on top.”
The notice said a technician once asked the surgical team to “check” an anesthetized patient’s penis because it was “too big,” causing Kwong to lift surgical drapes. A doctor overheard Kwong discussing whether a patient was a “grower or a shower”, and a physician assistant said Kwong joked about looking at the genitals of black male patients while they slept.
Staff also told investigators that Kwong compared hip replacements to “finding the G-spot”, made sexual innuendos about “hammering a patient” and commented on female patients’ fat rolls.
Some of these allegations about the orthopedics department came to public attention last year when three doctors sued the county, saying they were tired of seeing complaints against Kwong Stoll.
Jennifer Su, one of the three doctors, said she was told nothing about Kwong’s departure despite sitting through hours in interviews with investigators.
“They have been extremely opaque – that appears to be deliberate,” he said.
The Department of Health Services declined to answer questions about Kwong — including whether he was given severance pay or could receive a pension — and would only confirm that he no longer works with the county. does not do. The department said in a statement that it could not comment on personnel matters, but that Harbor-UCLA has “zero tolerance” for misconduct by employees.
“We have established clear channels for reporting allegations of misconduct so that they can be thoroughly investigated,” the department said. “We would like to express our gratitude to those who used this process to bring their concerns to our attention.”
For the poor, this statement sounds hollow. After his 2013 complaint, he said, he was transferred to a different office away from Kwong.
“They just swept everything under the carpet,” she said. “I want everyone to know how crappy the county treated me.”
