HHS okays use of IC checklists in Michigan program
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
February 27, 2008
After saying that the use of checklists was an invasion of patient privacy, the Office of Human Research and Protection (OHRP), part of the Department of Human and Health Services, has since said that using checklists as a means of preventing catheter-associated infections is okay, and the hospitals do not need approval by the OHRP.The OHRP originally halted the project, which involved a Johns Hopkins surgeon who organized a trial of using a specific checklist for heart catheterization, because it said it violated patients' rights to privacy. The problem, said the OHRP, was that data could not be collected around such checklists without being reviewed by all of Michigan's hospitals. Many physicians and experts in the field were outraged at this, saying that this type of governmental roadblock would lead to the demise of many other quality-related studies.
To read more about OHRP's original reaction, click here. To read about HHS' most recent statement, click here.
