(American Society for Quality: Milwaukee, Wisconsin) -- The American Society for Quality has submitted guidelines to the Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in response to a concern about a ruling that could threaten to disrupt quality initiatives in health care institutions across the country.

The ruling put a stop to data collection on a Johns Hopkins-led program being carried out in Michigan hospitals. The program was to determine the effectiveness of a simple checklist of five basic intensive care infection-control practices designed to reduce central venous catheter-related infections in hospital ICU patients. In a February 15 announcement, OHRP stated that it had reached a settlement with Johns Hopkins and the Michigan hospitals and concluded that the case was closed, stating that they had offered new guidance for future quality improvement research. But ASQ’s reading of the statements left doubts that the issue was settled and led to a meeting with and an invitation from OHRP to develop recommendations on how to best provide regulatory authority over healthcare quality initiatives.

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