Audience (Please share with anyone you think may need awareness of the changes)
- Heart transplant program directors and administrators
- Heart transplant program clinical directors
- Heart Review Board members
- Heart transplant program data coordinators
- Heart transplant program clinical coordinators
Implementation date
Oct. 27, 2022
At-a-glance
These updates will clarify the requirements of a candidate’s initial and extension status assignment in response to the heart transplant community’s questions. This implementation aligns the adult heart justification and extension forms within WaitlistSM (UNetSM) with the new policy clarifications. Policy changes and status form updates include:
- Status 1 Criteria 3 – Mechanical Circulatory Support Device (MCSD) with Life Threatening Ventricular Arrhythmia
- Timeframe of second criterion updated from 14 to 7 days
- Time at status updated from 14 to 7 days
- Status 3 Criteria 4 – Mechanical Circulatory Support Device (MCSD) with Pump Thrombosis
- Eligibility criteria updated to align with new policy
- Time at status updated from 14 to 30 days
- Status 3 Criteria 5 Extension – Mechanical Circulatory Support Device (MCSD) with Right Heart Failure
- Timeframe of extension updated from 14 to 90 days
- Status 3 Criteria 6 – Mechanical Circulatory Support Device (MCSD) with Device Infection
- Several criteria updated to include requiring IV antibiotics
- New recurrent debridement criterion added with associated extension timeframe of 90 days
- New data collection on extension when requiring IV antibiotics is the selected criteria
- Status 3 – New Criteria 13 – Mechanical Circulatory Support Device (MCSD) with Life Threatening Ventricular Arrhythmia After 7 Days
- New criteria added to align with new policy regarding MCSD support
What you need to do
Starting Oct. 27, these updates will be applied to the adult heart status justification forms in Waitlist. Transplant hospitals that maintain adult heart candidates should familiarize themselves with the policy changes in preparation for utilizing the realigned statuses and extensions in the candidate record.
After implementation, if you have a candidate listed at either Status 1 criterion 3 or Status 3 criterion 4 or 5, you will be unable to extend your candidate on that status without submitting a new form. Please follow up by submitting a new form for your candidate at the appropriate time. No other action is required.
Reports
Starting Oct. 27, these updates will be applied to the adult heart status justification forms in Waitlist. Transplant hospitals that maintain adult heart candidates should familiarize themselves with the policy changes in preparation for utilizing the realigned statuses and extensions in the candidate record.
After implementation, if you have a candidate listed at either Status 1 criterion 3 or Status 3 criterion 4 or 5, you will be unable to extend your candidate on that status without submitting a new form. Please follow up by submitting a new form for your candidate at the appropriate time. No other action is required.
Additional details
Adult heart status justification forms and extensions that were completed prior to implementation of these updates will not reflect these changes.
Education and resources
Read the policy notice for further details.
Help documentation on Waitlist will be updated to include changes to the updated fields. PDF reference documents within UNet will reflect changes to the status justification forms and extensions.
Questions?
If you have questions relating to implementation, contact UNOS Customer Service at [email protected], or call 800-978-4334 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET.
For policy-related questions, contact [email protected]
The Organ Center is available 24 hours a day at 800-292-9537
