title: Program-specific reports: implications and impact on program behavior.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Measuring and monitoring transplant center performance is vital to ongoing quality assessment and performance improvement initiatives geared toward ensuring optimal care for patients with end-stage organ failure. The impact of regulatory oversight on transplant center behavior and programmatic decision-making is complex.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Program-specific reports (PSRs) are published by the Scientific Registry for Transplant Recipients (SRTR) and are publically available for use by a variety of stakeholders, including patients, regulators, insurers, and care providers. PSRs have been both groundbreaking and controversial. The principal areas of concern relate to potential unintended consequences of PSRs, limitations in both the data collected by the registry and the currently used statistical methodology employed by the SRTR for risk adjustment, and the subsequent impact on transplant program behavior.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PSRs, which serve the purposes of fueling ongoing performance improvement initiatives and informing consumers and payers by fostering transparency in the communication of risk, also involve trade-offs because of their unintended use for regulatory oversight and subsequent impact on transplant center behavior. Future research is necessary to improve data integrity and risk-adjustment methodologies which will enhance regulation and preserve access to transplantation among vulnerable patient populations.
authors.affiliation: Comprehensive Transplant Center, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: VanWagner
authors.forename: Anton I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Skaro
mesh_terms: D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000592:standards*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012042:Registries; D058028:Research Report; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013531:Surgicenters / Q000592:standards*