A high-ranking doctor at a premier L.A. County teaching hospital, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, was fired following a two-year investigation that revealed he engaged in inappropriate behavior towards anesthetized patients and failed to disclose payments from a medical device company. Dr. Louis Kwong, an orthopedic surgeon, was found to have regularly gawked at the genitalia of Black male patients and made inappropriate comments about sex and other topics. He also received over $700,000 from Zimmer Biomet without reporting it as a conflict of interest, violating county policy. The hospital cited a hostile work environment created by Kwong’s actions as a reason for his firing.
Colleagues had reported Kwong’s misconduct to the hospital leadership years ago, but no action was taken until an investigation was launched in late 2021. Kwong was placed on paid leave while the investigation lasted more than two years, allowing him to continue receiving a salary despite not working. The hospital has been on probation since last summer due to complaints of unprofessional behavior in the orthopedics department, which Kwong chaired. Kwong has appealed his firing, denying the allegations against him and suggesting he is being made a scapegoat by the county.
In addition to his inappropriate behavior towards patients, Kwong was criticized for not disclosing his employment with the Lundquist Institute, a research facility next to Harbor-UCLA. The hospital found that Kwong’s affiliations with Zimmer Biomet and the Lundquist Institute created conflicts of interest, with financial incentives for business referrals. Kwong’s attorney argued that there was no intent to conceal the relationships and that his decisions on implant choices were based on patient needs.
Internal investigators at the county began examining Kwong’s relationship with Zimmer Biomet after a complaint in 2021, but the issue was flagged five years earlier in an email from a former doctor at Harbor-UCLA. The Department of Health Services did not respond to questions about what actions were taken after the issue was raised in 2016. Complaints about Kwong’s behavior, including racist remarks and inappropriate comments, had been ignored for years, creating a toxic work environment within the orthopedic department.
Three doctors sued the county in 2021, alleging that complaints against Kwong had been ignored for too long. The doctors revealed more details about the inappropriate behavior that they had witnessed or experienced in the department, including remarks about patients’ genitalia and racist comments. Despite the hospital’s claim of zero tolerance for misconduct, former employees like Maria Garibay felt that their complaints had been ignored and that the hospital had failed to address the toxic culture. The Department of Health Services declined to comment on whether Kwong received a severance payment or could still receive a pension, stating that he no longer worked for the county.
