No required emergency or anesthesia training at a Miami surgery center, state says
Two more Florida Department of Health complaints involving West Miami-Dade’s Xiluet Plastic Surgery have been filed, one of which contains allegations of hiding patient records, lacking a risk management program, and “no compliance” with “required anesthesia and emergency training.”
Those are in the complaint filed against Dr. Gamaliel Mattos, who works as Xiluet’s designated physician. That means he’s the doctor responsible for health and safety law compliance at Xiluet, run by company president Monica Vazquez, at 8396 SW Eighth St and 8350 SW Eighth St. It’s common for problems at a facility to fall onto a designated physician and Mattos is the designated physician at each location.
Before these most recent complaints, Xiluet also faced two pending administrative complaints. One complaint alleged 12 violations found in an inspection and two that remained even after an inspection. The other claimed Xiluet employees wouldn’t let Department of Health inspectors into the facility at 8396 SW Eighth St. on July 27, 2021.
READ MORE: State says a Miami plastic surgery center blocked state inspectors
Moving and removing fat
Administrative complaints are supposed to start the ball rolling toward a discipline disposition, which can be from the licensee being cleared of wrongdoing to the license being revoked.
The Oct. 20 administrative complaint against Xiluet repeats the charge from a July administrative complaint filed against Dr. Benjamin Liliav. Both say during an April 21, 2021, liposuction with fat transfer to the buttocks (Brazilian butt lift) and an abdominoplasty (tummy tuck), Liliav removed more than 1000ccs of supernatant fat from a woman.
That amount of fat removal in combination with a tummy tuck violates state code and could put Xiluet’s office surgery license at risk.
What also could put Xiluet’s license at risk are what inspectors say they found at 8350 SW Eighth St. on July 27, 2021, the date a previous complaint says employees blocked state inspectors from coming into the 8396 SW Eighth St. location
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’Withheld,’ ‘unavailable’ and ‘no compliance’
The Mattos complaint says inspectors showed up unannounced at the 8350 location and were allowed in, “but patient records were withheld from the inspectors and were unavailable for inspection, preventing the annual review of patient records.”
Other problems listed included:
▪ “The inspection found no required risk management program, including quarterly review of such information by the surgeon.”
▪ “The (designated) physician was responsible for having and maintaining documentation of transfer agreements or hospital staff privileges for the surgeons who were practicing at the facility” and documents that showed patients were given this knowledge. When things go wrong at the office surgery center and an actual hospital is needed, that’s when those transfer agreements and privileges come into play. The patient has to be told in writing which hospital the surgeon or office center has a transfer agreement with and where the surgeon has privileges “to perform the same procedure as that being performed in the outpatient setting.”
▪ “The facility had no compliance with Level II or Level III required anesthesia and emergency training.” Office surgery center levels are based on the anesthesia used. A Level II surgery, according to the Department of Health, lets the patient “tolerate unpleasant procedures” but still can react to spoken requests or touch stimulation. A Level III surgery, on the other hand, uses “general anesthesia or major conduction anesthesia and pre-operative sedation.” Consciousness is lost.
This story was originally published November 26, 2023 at 4:45 PM.
