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University police officers take Henry Reid, former director of the UCLA Willed Body Program, into

A report reviewing five willed body programs across the University of California system was recently released by Navigant Consulting, Inc., per request of the UC Regents. Included among the proposed changes to the willed body programs is a call for stricter background checks.

The firm’s report stated key gaps within the program’s infrastructure and human resources department include a limited use of background checks, a lack of training and education for personnel, and no evidence of proactive compliance reporting.

Navigant was hired in March 2004 as an outside industrial consulting firm to aid the UC Board of Regents in their review of all five of the university’s willed body programs.

“The university itself could have conducted its own review and report. But its findings would not have had that much credibility,” said former Governor George Deukmejian, who coordinated the systemwide review with the University of the Office of the President.

“Navigant seemed the most qualified and had greater strengths than the other firms which responded to the request for a proposal (identifying the best practices for the willed body program),” added Deukmejian.

The call for a complete review of the all the UC willed body programs was triggered by charges of financial impropriety at the UCLA Willed Body Program and the arrest of Henry Reid, the director the program.

The incident, along with a number of alleged mishandlings of willed body cases at UCLA, UC Irvine and UC Davis in the past decade, stated that there were issues which needed to be identified and dealt with in order to affirm the program’s credibility.

Such issues were summed up in the current state assessment portion of the Navigant report which noted that only two of the campus’ programs were performing criminal background checks and only one consistently completed a financial check. The firm also reported that reforms of the human resources policies and practices were necessary.

Despite efforts to meet current recommendations, the program at UCLA is still suspended. It currently allocates funds to acquire materials from other UC willed body programs for medical education.

Henry Reid, the former program director, was hired to clean up the program in 1996, after several lawsuits claimed the university allegedly mishandled donated bodies and disposed of bodies in an inappropriate manner.

Reid’s arrest in March 2004 raised questions about the validity of his credentials and also the utilization of background checks by the human resources departments of willed body programs across the UC.

Some blame Reid’s hiring on inadequate background checks.

“All that the lack of effective background checks means is that we had an unreliable person in that position,” said Dr. David Taylor, the director of medical services at the UC Office of the President.

In the past, background checks were only performed for employees in “sensitive positions,” Taylor said.

The Navigant report recommends more stringent background checks in the future, including the currently utilized criminal and financial background checks, as well as education and employment checks, all of which should be undertaken as a condition for employment.

In the report, the consulting firm also calls for the programs to “embrace a culture of communication for reporting incidents of potential fraud and wrongdoing.”

Such a culture may lessen and prevent chances of employee mishandling of bodies and cadaveric material.

“In the past, internal audits would review potential fraud reports, but now the dean’s office will deal with these reports directly,” Taylor said, referring to the dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine.

Though the changes are not implemented yet, they will be standardized soon, Taylor added.

Moreover, whistleblower protection for employees reporting fraud will soon be in place as well, Taylor said.

According to the regents, several changes have already been made within the UCLA Willed Body Program since the Jan. 19 report was presented.

According to the UC Regents Committee Audit on Jan. 19, the UC willed body programs are an essential part of medical education and research. Yet the programs are unable to ensure their activities are “conducted with the highest degree of ethical, professional and security standards.”