USC Med School Cardiovascular Fellowship To Lose Accreditation

LOS ANGELES, CA — The USC medical school's fellowship in cardiovascular disease will lose its accreditation, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

No reason was publicly stated for the move by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, but according to The Times, a medical resident had made allegations of sexual assault against a program fellow a year ago.

The fellowship program is run by Keck School of Medicine of USC and Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. The loss of accreditation effectively shuts down the fellowship, according to The Times.

The council also put Los Angeles County and USC on probation, according to The Times, which reported that the county and USC jointly sponsor more than 60 programs involving medical residents and fellows.

The decisions were announced in a memo to faculty from USC medical school dean Dr. Laura Mosqueda.

The memo cited "resident safety and wellness processes" concerns on the part of outside experts, The Times reported.

The changes to the fellowship program will go into effect in June 2020, according to The Times.

The allegations of sexual assault were made by Dr. Meena Zareh, who filed a lawsuit against USC and Los Angeles County alleging she was cornered and violated by Dr. Guillermo Cortes in a hospital room. Zareh also alleges that officials did not take her allegations seriously and that she was subject to retaliation, according to The Times.

Two other female colleagues subsequently came forward and accused Cortes of sexual assault, the newspaper reported.

Cortes' attorney has said the doctor denies the allegations and will be vindicated.

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services issued a statement to The Times saying it "takes all allegations of inappropriate conduct seriously" and that "immediate and appropriate actions" were taken upon learning of Zareh's allegations.

The program's loss of accreditation is the latest setback for USC's medical school.

Carmen Puliafito resigned as dean in 2016 after The Times detailed his drug use and partying, prompting a state investigation and its accusation that the former dean used methamphetamine and heroin, smoked methamphetamine within hours of seeing patients and provided drugs to criminals and addicts.

The Times also reported that a 21-year-old prostitute overdosed while taking drugs with Puliafito at a Pasadena hotel and accused the university of turning a blind eye to complaints about him. Puliafito remained on the medical school faculty after resigning as dean and continued to accept new patients. He was fired by the school in August 2017.

Puliafito's replacement, Dr. Rohit Varma, resigned in October 2017 as The Times was preparing to publish a story disclosing that he had been formally disciplined by USC in 2003 following allegations that he sexually harassed a young researcher while he was a junior professor supervising her work.

Campus gynecologist George Tyndall had been the subject of years of complaints about sexual misconduct during exams conducted at the student health center, prompting hundreds of former students filing lawsuits against the university. The university reached a $215 million settlement in a class-action suit earlier this year, although dozens of other suits are still pending.

City News Service