In a Jan. 17 letter to the Government Accountability Office, Sen. Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, asked that it investigate why regulations implementing the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005, which would establish patient safety organizations, have not been fully implemented.
“Almost three years later, these regulations are still languishing in the review and clearance process,” wrote Kennedy. “The failure to issue regulations has had a chilling effect on efforts to improve a culture of safety in American medicine, putting the health and safety of patients at risk.” Read the letter.
