An Iowa-licensed surgeon accused last year of unnecessary surgeries and lying to patients is now facing charges of professional incompetence.
The Iowa Board of Medicine alleges Dr. Giovanni Ciuffo, formerly of Sioux City, is guilty of professional incompetence, engaging in a practice that is harmful or detrimental to the public, and knowingly making misleading or untrue representations in the practice of medicine.
The board says Ciuffo, the former director for cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center, is an Iowa-licensed physician who practiced cardiothoracic surgery in Sioux City during “the time period relevant to these allegations” – although the board has not publicly disclosed what that time period is.
All of the alleged conduct that gave rise to the charges is being withheld from public disclosure pursuant to a 2021 Iowa Supreme Court ruling that requires licensing boards to keep such information confidential until a case is resolved.
In May 2022, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported that Ciuffo was referenced in a federal civil lawsuit that alleged he had provided substandard care for patients and manipulated patient-outcome data at MercyOne. Through his attorney, Ciuffo said then that the allegations made against him in that lawsuit were “outrageous and completely false.”
The claims were part of a lawsuit filed by Cynthia Tener, a registered nurse, against her former employer, MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center. Tener, who was the...
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