Audience
- Kidney, pancreas and islet Primary Transplant Program Administrators, Primary Transplant Data Coordinators and Primary Physicians
- Kidney, pancreas and islet TX Program Administrators/Managers, Data Coordinators, TX Program – Clinical Coordinators
- Primary OPO Administrative Directors
- All UNetSM users
- Please share this notice with anyone in your organization who would benefit from this information.
Implementation date: March 15, 2021
At-a-glance
With the removal of donation service area (DSA) and region from kidney and pancreas allocation, local donor acceptance criteria in WaitlistSM have been updated in order to provide additional efficiency in organ distribution. Kidney and pancreas transplant programs should evaluate their current settings.
Summary of changes
Because proximity to the donor hospital is a primary factor in the fixed-distance allocation system, changes have been made. These changes take into account the location of the donor hospital in relation to the candidate’s hospital of listing when “local” acceptance criteria are applied. Read additional background information here.
Effective March 15, local acceptance criteria apply to kidney, pancreas, kidney-pancreas and pancreas islet candidates on the match run when the candidate’s transplant hospital is located within the DSA and/or within 250 NM of the donor hospital.
The inclusion of DSA in this definition does not impact the order of the match run as that is established and organized by distance-based allocation definitions within OPTN policy.
This decision was made in response to community feedback. An Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network workgroup that included donation and transplant members with experience in all organ types collaborated to develop these changes.
The decision to maintain the use of DSA definitions for local acceptance criteria, in addition to distance, was made to ensure minimal disruption in organ allocation practices.
The inclusion of DSA in this definition does not impact the order of the match run as that is established and organized by distance-based allocation definitions within OPTN policy.
What you need to do
Kidney and pancreas transplant programs should evaluate their current “local” acceptance criteria settings for candidates in Waitlist and determine if updates are appropriate based on the revised definition of “local” donor acceptance criteria.
If your program uses the listing defaults available for kidney, pancreas, kidney-pancreas or pancreas islets, you should review your programs settings for local acceptance criteria and make changes, if appropriate.
Additional resources
Find professional education on UNOS Connect:
- QLT103D Acceptance Criteria for Distance-based Allocation
In addition, DonorNet® online help documentation has been updated so that transplant programs will have access to the information about how local acceptance criteria is used for offers for all organ types.
Questions?
If you have questions relating to implementation, contact UNOS Customer Service at [email protected], or call 800-978-4334 from 8 am to 7 pm EST.
For policy-related questions, contact [email protected].
The Organ Center is available around the clock and can be reached at 800-292-9537.
