Organ donor index: a benchmark for comparing hospital organ donor rates.
OBJECTIVE
To develop organ donor indices to assess donor rates of individual hospitals.


METHODS
Data from hospital databases were retrospectively reviewed for patient separation ICD-9-CM codes (i.e., diagnostic codes from the International classification of diseases, 9th revision, clinical modification) to identify and categories actual and potential organ donors. Organ donor indices for groups of codes and for individual hospitals were determined by dividing the number of actual donors by the total number of patients who died with the same separation ICD-9-CM codes.


METHODS
The three South Australian adult tertiary hospitals in 1988-1995.


METHODS
The 154 actual organ donors, and all patients aged less than 71 years who died with the same groups of ICD-9-CM codes as the organ donors.


RESULTS
Organ donors could be classified by three groups of ICD-9-CM codes specifying diseases or pathological processes that could result in brain death. These groups were head injury (44.2% of donors), cerebrovascular accident (CVA) (42.2%), and eight "other" codes (13.6%). Differences between the head injury donor indices for the three hospitals were not significant (Hospital A, 19.1%; Hospital B, 24%; Hospital C, 21%), but there were significant interhospital differences in donor indices for the CVA group (A, 11.2%; B, 5.7%; C, 5.1%; P < 0.05) and the "other" group (A, 3.6%; B, 0.7%; C, 0.3%; P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
ICD-9-CM codes can be used to describe organ donors and hospital populations from which potential organ donors may be found. The casemix-controlled organ donor indices can be used to compare the organ donor rates of individual hospitals and to examine reasons for low rates (other than purely casemix variation).
Holt
A W
AW
Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, SA.
Hodgeman
G K
GK
Vedig
A E
AE
Heard
P E
PE
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000145:classification; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000145:classification; D019992:Databases as Topic; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups / Q000145:classification; D006739:Hospital Administration; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013021:South Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data