Audience:
Transplant administrators, clinical coordinators, data coordinators, physicians, and surgeons from heart and heart/lung programs
Implementation dates:
Phase 1 – September 18, 2018: You now have access to the new status justification forms and should begin submitting them in UNet for your adult heart and heart/lung candidates. You should submit all forms by Oct. 18.
Phase 2 – October 18, 2018: The new adult heart allocation policy will be in effect.
At-a-glance
Adult heart allocation policy is changing and one result is that we are moving from three medical urgency statuses to six. Read policy notice for complete details. These policy changes will require you to submit new status justification forms in UNet for all of your heart candidates.
Samples of these forms have been available in UNet since June 30 to help you familiarize yourself with the newly required data and prepare for the change. However, now you can access the actual status justification forms in Waitlist and submit them for all your candidates. This will ensure that when the policy takes effect on Oct. 18, the medical urgency status for each of your candidates is correct.
Find more specific information below about what will be different in UNet beginning Sept. 18. You will also learn more in the UNet system training available on Aug. 29.
What you should know about the new status justification forms
You must submit a new status justification form for ALL of your active candidates. If you fail to submit a form before Oct. 18, the new system will automatically assign a status 6 for your candidate, or status 5 if they are listed for at least one other organ at your center.
If your candidate’s condition changes significantly a few days before the new policy takes effect on Oct. 18, you may want to submit a new form, even if you have already submitted one. This will ensure that as soon as the new policy officially takes effect, your candidate will have the accurate status and be eligible for the proper organ offer.
Note: Submitted forms cannot be edited by anyone. Submit a new form if you make a mistake.
What you should know about risk stratification data (RSD)
The new policy requires us to collect RSD on all six status justification forms. This is brand new information that you have not been required to submit before. You must report this new information (40-50 fields) on every single status justification form (including extension forms), every single time. You will be able to indicate that you haven’t performed a particular test. We will use this information to possibly develop a heart allocation score in the future.
Reports
Between now and Oct. 18, you will have access to a report in Waitlist that will list which candidates you still need to submit new status justification forms for. To access the report, log into UNet and from the Waitlist landing page, click on the headline Candidates pending submission of new status justification forms.
Several additional reports are available to help you prepare for this policy. You will learn more about these reports in the system training now available on UNOS Connect.
Resources
- Toolkit (contains policy language, FAQ (updated on Sept. 11), information on heart devices and candidate status, and more), new heart guidance documents
- Q&A for patients about how the policy change will affect them
- Patient information (PowerPoint presentation you can use to educate your patients about the policy change)
- Access all the available policy and system trainings in UNOS Connect from the course catalog; Heart category
- Preparing for adult heart allocation changes—recording available
- OPO training – recording available
- UNet System training —recording available
- Articles:
- Additional resources: Online help documentation covering UNet functionality is available. Access Secure Enterprise and then choose Waitlist. On the Help menu, click Waitlist Help. You may search for a specific help topic or use the table of contents to assist with your search.
- Questions?
If you have questions about how to submit the new status justification forms, contact the UNetSM Help Desk at 800-978-4334. Contact your UNOS regional administrator at 804-782-4800 if you have questions related to the new adult heart policy.
