The Great Eastern University IACUC always had problems with two aspects of the semiannual inspection process. The first was obtaining the reports from the various inspection groups in a timely manner, and the second was agreeing on the amount of time to be allowed for the correction of any deficiencies that were found. After surviving the most recent round of arguing about the time period to be allowed for correcting deficiencies, Anna Wainwright, the IACUC administrator, asked if it would be allowable to have the committee's chair make that decision.
“Well, I guess if the committee votes to approve Larry making the decision, it will be OK,” said Donna Brown, one of the veterinarians. “The regulations say that the report has to contain a timeline for deficiencies found to be corrected, but they don't say anything about who gets to make that decision.”
“Wait a second,” said Larry Covelli, the IACUC chair. “If it's true that there are no regulations defining who has the responsibility for setting the timeline for corrections, then I would prefer to have the animal care group make that decision, because they work more closely with the Maintenance department than any of us do, and they would have a much better feel for realistic time limits.”
“Actually, I would rather not have my department do that,” said Brown. “Because then the IACUC will expect our animal care staff to follow up with Maintenance in case the work doesn't get done, and if it gets done incorrectly, people will expect animal care to resolve the problem. This is an IACUC concern, not an animal care issue.”
Who do you think should have the responsibility for setting the time limit for the correction of deficiencies found on a semiannual inspection (or program review)?
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Silverman, J. Setting timelines to correct deficiencies. Lab Anim 43, 309 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban.607
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/laban.607
