At its June 2013 meeting, the OPTN/UNOS Board of Directors voted to eliminate the separate program designation requirement for combined heart/lung programs (Appendix J of the Bylaws). Beginning September 1, 2013, any transplant hospital that has currently approved programs for heart and lung transplantation may also perform combined heart/lung transplants without additional approval.
What does this mean for you?
- Even though UNOS will be eliminating the combined designation, if you already have an approved heart/lung program, you will remain that way in our system so that you will continue to receive matches. Nothing will change on your end until we make back-end changes to UNet to accommodate the modified bylaw.
- If you are currently approved to perform both heart transplants AND lung transplants, then you no longer need to submit an application for approval to perform combined heart/lung transplants. A heart/lung program status will appear as Active, approval not required so you can list heart/lung candidates.
- If either the heart or the lung transplant program is made inactive, the heart/lung program becomes inactive. This will be carried out by UNOS.
If you have any questions, please contact your regional administrator at 804-782-4800.
