News in brief - Dec. 8, 2003

No action on organ donation bill - JCAHO approves strengthened infection-control standards - N.H. parental notification law challenged

No action on organ donation bill

No further action is expected this year on a congressional bill that would permit studies to determine how financial incentives would affect cadaveric organ donations.

Such studies were endorsed by the American Medical Association at its 2002 Annual Meeting and would be permitted under a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. James Greenwood (R, Pa.) this past July.

Greenwood's communication director, Stephanie Fischer, said Congress had focused so much on Medicare and prescription drug benefits that there had been little time or staff available to work on other health care issues.

The bill, which had four original co-sponsors, was referred to the House Subcommittee on Health on Aug. 8. The only action since then has been the addition of a fifth co-sponsor, Vic Snyder, MD (D, Ark.), who practiced as a family physician in central Arkansas for 15 years before entering politics.

JCAHO approves strengthened infection-control standards

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has approved revised standards to help prevent deadly health care-associated infections.

The standards keep many of the concepts embodied in existing standards but sharpen and raise expectations of organization leadership and of the infection-control program itself. The requirements for ambulatory care, behavioral health care, home care, hospital, laboratory and long-term-care organizations will take effect in January 2005.

JCAHO accredits more than 16,000 organizations, and health care-associated infections are a risk in all care settings in this group.

N.H. parental notification law challenged

A physician and two women's health clinics in New Hampshire were among several entities that, with help from the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the state in November over a new parental notification law.

The plaintiffs are concerned that the law doesn't have an exception that would cover situations when a mother's life is in jeopardy. The law requires that girls younger than 18 tell a parent about an abortion at least 48 hours before it can be performed.

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, the Concord Feminist Health Center, the Feminist Health Center of Portsmouth and Manchester obstetrician-gynecologist Wayne Goldner, MD, worry that the law makes exceptions for only two scenarios: an ectopic pregnancy and a spontaneous miscarriage.

"What if a teen arrives at the hospital and needs immediate care and we are unable to locate one of her parents?" Dr. Goldner said in a statement. "This law forces me to wait until her condition deteriorates to the point where she is about to die. No law should be allowed to interfere with a doctor's ability to preserve the health and life of their patients."

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Hampshire, asks the court to block the law from taking effect Dec. 31.