The University of California, Irvine Medical Center is looking for a new chief executive following the resignation of Ralph Cygan on Tuesday.
The university has been hit with allegations of mismanagement over its liver transplant program since late last year.
UCI Chancellor Michael Drake accepted the resignation of Cygan, who had been the Orange teaching hospital’s chief executive for more than five years.
“I believe my resignation as CEO is in the best interests of our medical center and our patients,” Cygan said in a statement. “It is my hope that a change in leadership will help the hospital move forward and assist everyone in focusing their efforts on providing our patients with the highest quality health care.”
Cygan, who’s been associated with UCI for more than three decades, said he intended to return to the UCI School of Medicine’s faculty. He was put on administrative leave late last year.
Interim Chief Executive Maureen Zehntner is set to continue serving in the role until a permanent chief executive is named, the university said.
UCI shuttered the liver transplant program in November after federal regulators pulled its certification in the wake of charges of mismanagement and poor care. The hospital is being investigated by regulators.
More than 30 patients died while waiting for transplants during the past two years, and UCI Medical Center rejected livers that other transplant programs accepted, according to investigators.
“We recognize that recent issues at UCI Medical Center are a result of a breakdown in the application of the values that must drive every decision made at the medical center, the School of Medicine and the entire UCI campus,” Drake said.
UCI plans to create a new position, vice chancellor for health sciences, to oversee both the medical center and the medical school and report directly to Drake.
The university expects to set up a search committee to fill the vice chancellor position during the next four weeks.