Transplant Group Slow to Discipline Poor Quality Transplant Centers

Michael Giberson

An L.A. Times story reports on the struggles of the United Network for Organ Sharing to oversee its member organizations, a job it seems not to pursue too energetically.

The little-known organization that oversees the nation’s organ transplant system often fails to detect or decisively fix problems at derelict hospitals — even when patients are dying at excessive rates, a Times investigation has found.

When it does act, the United Network for Organ Sharing routinely keeps findings of its investigations secret, leaving patients and their families unaware of the potential risks, interviews and confidential records show.

(Via the Freakonomics blog, which also discusses other recent organ donation articles.)