Wichita VA hospital moves to fire doctor accused of botching operations in Missouri
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect a technicality in the removal process.
The Department of Veteran Affairs hospital in Wichita is in the process of firing a doctor who Missouri regulators say botched operations while he was in private practice in the Kansas City area several years ago.
The VA began its investigation of Christel O. Wambi-Kiesse in September after The Kansas City Star reported that Missouri’s Board of Registration for the Healing Arts was seeking to discipline the 44-year-old urologist for allegedly harming patients while performing robot-assisted surgeries that were beyond his abilities.
The board cited three examples, all during 2013, while he was working for a now-defunct urology clinic associated with Centerpoint Medical Center in Independence. One woman died from a massive infection two months after Wambi-Kiesse punctured her bladder while performing a biopsy and failed to repair the damage, according to the complaint. The Star independently confirmed her identity as Susan Guillaume, who was 69 and lived in Independence.
“He poked two holes in her bladder, and then he said ‘we’re just going to let it heal naturally,’ “ her husband, Jim Guillaume, said in August. “Heal naturally? All that poison went into her abdominal cavity.”
Two men, aged 71 and 68, were said to have suffered dangerous complications after undergoing prostate surgeries that took three times longer than they should have.
During the VA’s investigation, Wambi-Kiesse was assigned administrative duties and not allowed to see patients. At the time, the VA called the allegations “serious.”
The agency declined on Monday to give its reasons for firing Wambi-Kiesse after that investigation, citing “privacy restrictions.” But in general, the agency said:
“VA has made clear that it will hold employees accountable when they fail to live up to the high standards Veterans and taxpayers expect, and that’s exactly what we’re doing in this case.”
Reached by phone Monday, Wambi-Kiesse declined comment.
The VA won’t discuss the timing of Wambi-Kiesse’s dismissal. The public affairs officer at the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center in Wichita said the VA proposed Wambi-Kiesse’s removal on or before Dec. 20.
He had seven business days to respond after getting that notice, Dec. 20. The VA then had to make a final decision no later than 15 business days after the initial removal notice. The VA would not say when the firing is effective, but he is still on the payroll for now.
Previously, the VA had declined to discuss the Wichita hospital’s hiring of Wambi-Kiesse back in 2014 for a job that paid him more than $300,000 a year. According to the Missouri medical board’s complaint before the state administrative hearing commission, his name was as of April that year on the National Practitioner Data Bank, which lists doctors who may have a record of misconduct or substandard care.
But because the VA refused to provide his exact hiring date, The Star could not establish whether the VA had access to that information at the time.
Why his name was on the list is not public information. But among the possible reasons is that, according to the Missouri complaint, a peer review committee at Centerpoint had written a report in 2013 raising concerns about how he handled 14 out of 160 surgeries. A subsequent review ultimately led to his resignation in March of 2014.
Inclusion on the list does not automatically disqualify doctors from working at the VA. But hiring officers are supposed to follow up and learn why an applicant’s name is in the data bank and whether that would be reason not to hire them.
The Government Accountability Office earlier this year faulted the VA for not always doing a good job checking the credentials of the doctors and other health professionals it hires. The report did not single out the Wichita hospital, but said that in some cases VA officials overlooked or were unaware that a doctor was on the data bank’s list.
Wambi-Kiesse’s medical license from Missouri allowed him to practice at the Kansas hospital because the VA recognizes licenses from every state. It is up for renewal at the end of January.
The disciplinary complaint that could strip him of his license is pending and no hearing date has been set.
This story was originally published December 30, 2019 at 1:48 PM.
