The Florida Department of Health wants to change the way it oversees pediatric cardiac surgery, despite pleas from families of children with heart ailments, the Palm Beach Post reports.
The administrative hearing held Friday addresses a longtime rule that sets quality standards and allows for ‘doctor-led’ inspections of hospitals where pediatric heart surgeries are conducted, the Post reports. DOH says it doesn’t have the legal authority to oversee hospitals in this way, hearing records show.
But the request also comes after a CNN investigation found that since 2011, nine children had died under the care of the pediatric cardiac surgery program at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, the Post reports.
