WASHINGTON—The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has for the first time decertified an organ procurement group mid-cycle, addressing patient safety concerns as part of a move to root out unsafe practices in the organ transplant system that could cost patients’ lives.
The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency (LAORA), a division of the University of Miami Health System, is one of 55 federally authorized nonprofits that allocate organs for transplant.
“Every American should feel safe becoming an organ donor and giving the gift of life, yet decades of ignored patient safety concerns have driven more and more Americans off the donor list,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a press conference….