Attaining specific donor management goals increases number of organs transplanted per donor: a quality improvement project.
Most organ procurement organization professionals and transplant surgeons intuitively know that meeting donor management goals improves organ allocation and transplant outcomes. In this era of evidence-based medicine, it is important to know whether the data support this assumption. All 6 organ procurement organizations in the United Network for Organ Sharing's region 10 agreed on 6 specific donor management goals. The organ procurement organizations then compared the number of organs transplanted per donor when goals were met with the number when goals were not met. Results were broken down by donor type: standard-criteria donation, expanded-criteria donation, and donation after cardiac death. For all 6 organ procurement organizations combined, the data for all of 2008 show a substantial and statistically significant improvement in number of organs transplanted per donor for standard criteria donation and total donors when goals are met, with a smaller degree of improvement (although not statistically significant) in the number of organs transplanted per donor for expanded-criteria donation and donation after cardiac death when goals are met.
Hagan
Michael E
ME
Gift of Life Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA. mhagan@giftoflifemichigan.org
McClean
Daniel
D
Falcone
Cassandra A
CA
Arrington
Jeffrey
J
Matthews
Donna
D
Summe
Carrie
C
D032921:Consensus; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D017146:Models, Organizational; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013997:Time Factors; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States; D014488:United States Health Resources and Services Administration