HOUSTON (NEWSnet/AP) — A Houston hospital has halted its liver and kidney transplant programs after learning a doctor manipulated records for liver transplant candidates, according to a media report.

“Inappropriate changes … effectively inactivated the candidates on the liver transplant waiting list,” Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center said in a statement published Thursday in Houston Chronicle.  “Subsequently, these patients did not/were not able to receive organ donation offers while inactive.”

The doctor's identity was not disclosed.

The facility stopped the liver transplant program April 3 after finding “irregularities” with donor acceptance criteria. An investigation found problems with information entered into a database that is used to match donor organs with patients.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is investigating. 

The hospital said it is working with patients and their families to get them care and is contacting the 38 patients on the liver transplant list and 346 patients on the kidney transplant list.

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