Performance
Driving system-wide progress to better serve patients
Improvement package addresses patient empowerment, equity and more
This week, UNOS shared a substantive package of improvements, based on feedback from the Senate Committee on Finance and the UNOS Board, as well as ideas from community members and the entire donation and transplant system. We have also shared these much-needed reforms with members of Congress, the full Board of Directors and OPTN committee leaders and members, as well as hospital and OPO leadership across the country.
This package represents a crucial step that underscores our commitment to all the patients who rely on us. In it, we outline a series of actions we are committed to taking, ranging from equity, patient empowerment and transportation to technology, oversight and governance. Taken together, these proposals will drive progress across the nation’s organ donation and transplant system, promote public trust and most importantly, help us save more lives.
The package comprise the following eight actions, including those we have taken, those we will take in the near future, and changes we are advocating for in the next OPTN contract:
“This package represents a crucial step that underscores our commitment to all the patients who rely on us.”
Maureen McBride, Ph.D., Interim CEO
- Increase direct service, tools, and resources to patients, donors, caregivers and their families
- Improve equity in access to the transplant healthcare system
- Enable the OPTN to collect donor potential data directly from hospitals to drive more improvement in organ procurement organizations and diversify the pool of donors
- Increase transparency in OPO, hospital, and system performance by making more comparative performance data available publicly
- Reduce risk of organ delay, damage, or loss in transport
- Maintain safe, modern, and reliable OPTN IT systems and infrastructure
- Enhance OPTN Membership and Professional Standards Committee (MPSC) oversight and increase transparency in the process
- Make the OPTN an organization independent of the OPTN contractor
I’m excited about the opportunities this package presents and the innovative ways we can collaborate across our diverse and thriving community to achieve each of these items. Some of this outreach will include meeting with elected leaders to discuss these proposals.
But I want to be clear – this is just the beginning. The package represents a jumping off point for our community of dedicated patients, families, physicians, hospitals, OPOs, professionals, volunteers and others. Working together, I know we can build on our efforts to achieve lasting progress.
Members of the national organ donation and transplant community helped drive so much of this work, but it is the patients we serve that continuously inspire us to do more and pursue lifesaving improvements.
As always, our work continues.