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Philadelphia, PA, February 18, 2008 — The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), the organization representing the fastest growing specialty in healthcare, hospitalists, today praised the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) for their decision to reverse a previous ruling in a highly followed Michigan case.

On February 15th, OHRP lifted its block against a Michigan hospital-based quality improvement program that was using a checklist to reduce the rate of catheter-related infections in intensive care unit settings, citing the need for informed consent from all patients.

OHRP's decision rocked the healthcare community, prompting organizations including SHM, to take action.

SHM partnered with the American Thoracic Society (ATS), the Society for Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACCN), and the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), to write Michael Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services, expressing significant concern about the potential adverse effect the ruling could have on the future of quality improvement and safety efforts in the nation's hospitals.

The leadership of these organizations was in the process of galvanizing their members to contact their elected officials at the time of OHRP's reversal.

"This is an important day for quality improvement efforts throughout our nation's hospitals," said Larry Wellikson, MD, SHM's Chief Executive Officer. "We are pleased with OHRP's decision to overrule their original decision and applaud their recognition that flexibility is important in balancing the well-documented and respected pillars of institutional review and informed consent, with the benefits of quality improvement projects to the patients we serve."

Robert Wachter, MD, Associate Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, noted quality improvement expert, and author of the blog, Wachter's World (www.wachtersworld.com), had this to say about the decision:

"I couldn't be more pleased with the way that SHM and hospitalists more generally identified the OHRP ruling as a threat to patient safety and quality, and mobilized resources to change the policy. Our success in this case proves that we will advocate for our patients, will enlist key partners, and will not be easily deterred. This is a proud moment for our field."

SHM is the premier medical society representing hospitalists. Over the past decade, research studies proving that hospitalists decrease patient lengths of stay, hospital costs and patient mortality rates while increasing patient satisfaction, have galvanized the hospital medicine profession and spurred demand for hospitalists nationwide. Currently, hospital medicine is the fastest-growing medical specialty in the U.S., with today's 20,000 hospitalists projected to grow to about 30,000 by the end of the decade. For more information about SHM, visit www.hospitalmedicine.org.