UNOS is studying membership satisfaction and engagement with our organization in a bold new way. As part of that initiative, we contracted with SIR, a comprehensive market research contractor, to conduct some qualitative and quantitative research.
SIR staff worked closely with departments from all across UNOS to administer a 15-20 minute online questionnaire this spring and summer. Nearly 1500 of you responded to this survey, representing these primary groups:
- Professional staff from hospitals and transplant centers
- Professional staff from OPOs and histocompatibility labs
- Clinicians (representing physicians, surgeons, and medical directors)
We wanted to assess how aware and familiar you are with UNOS and our services. We were also interested in your general impression of us and the specific experiences you’ve had that led to those impressions. We wanted to hear from you about what an ideal organization that managed the organ sharing process would look like. And we wanted to see if different segments of members had decisively different views. Most importantly, we wanted to see where we needed to improve and what actions we could take immediately to serve you better.
Interesting Findings
- By segmenting our respondents, we discovered that the OPO/Hist Lab and Hospital/Transplant Center staff held similar views but clinicians and surgeons thought differently.
- Although many of you are knowledgeable about UNOS, increased knowledge does not necessarily lead to increased satisfaction—feeling engaged with UNOS, however, does. This was especially true among surgeons.
- Almost half of you feel that UNOS has become significantly easier to work with over the past five years and three out of five believe that trend will continue in the next five to ten years. Clinicians and surgeons are decidedly more pessimistic, yet those that are more engaged with us are more optimistic.
- Most of you are unfamiliar with UNOS committees and leadership and only two out of five feel satisfied with how we handle committee and member leadership.
- While many of you are familiar with our communication vehicles and are satisfied with the frequency of communication, you feel that we could improve the content we provide. What you want to hear about most is policy, processes and best practices.
- All group segments prefer accessing the newsletter and the website to calling someone at UNOS.
- Over half of you would be interested in being part of a future UNOS discussion panel or focus group.
Ways we can improve
- Respondents from all three groups want to feel listened to.
- You want transparency and you want us to keep up with modernized technical and information systems.
- You want us to improve UNet and KPD and you want to be part of that improvement. You want us to better share innovative knowledge between organizations across the country.
- You want more information about committees but you also want ways to engage with UNOS beyond traditional committee and board positions.
What we’re doing
We are reorganizing some of our departments to allow us to better reach out and connect with all segments of our membership, particularly regarding policy changes.
We are in the planning stage to redesign and streamline our websites to get you the information you want and need most. Part of that website design includes a component that will allow you to share best practices with each other
We are coming up with fresh ways to communicate critical policy information to targeted audiences, beyond our traditional approach. But don’t worry, we won’t abandon the vehicles you are familiar and happy with like our newsletters and websites.
We will reach out to you as we improve our technologies through focus groups, workshops, surveys, and other methods.
We want to hear from you
These survey results are driving our actions and initiatives. Please let us know how we are doing and how you would like to help. Send any comments or suggestions to [email protected]. Indicate your interest in a committee by submitting a nomination form. Attend our annual UNOS Transplant Management Forum. Subscribe to our eNewsletter.
