The fatality rate of patients in the liver-transplant program at the University of Southern California University Hospital is among the highest in the country, says a lengthy article in the Los Angeles Times. An article by the newspaper in July spurred an investigation of the liver program by regulators and outside experts. The newspaper says that while the reasons behind the high death rate “remain largely a mystery,” one answer could be that the program consciously accepts high-risk patients who would probably be rejected elsewhere.

USC’s is not the only academic organ-transplant program in the state to be scrutinized in recent months. Problems were found at two other teaching hospitals, according to a Times article summarized in this space in November.