At Wachter’s World, Bob Wachter, Professor and Associate Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco explains more about how the government’s attempt to stop the use of checklists in ICUs could undercut efforts to improve quality in hospitals nationwide. He also gives you a chance to write to your Senator or Congressman. Go take a look.
Health Beat by Maggie Mahar
From my perspective–that of an ICU doc and sometime member of a large medical center IRB–this is completely nuts. We do QI projects all the time, things like monitoring hand washing and putting on masks for suctioning. These things are part of the proper practice of medicine. However, apparently now if we want to share our findings about what is the best practice, results acquired during the normal practice of medicine, we now must satisfy these absurd requirements. Though I haven’t been on an IRB for over a decade, I’m quite certain if someone came to us with a protocol like this we would have said it wasn’t research requiring approval.
Hi Chris–
Yes, I agree–it is completely nuts. But OHRP seems to be digging itself into a hole. See Wachter’s newest post today.