The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network has launched a collaborative improvement project for 2020. Led by United Network for Organ Sharing’s collaborative improvement team, more than 10 select pediatric liver programs are participating in a pediatric liver discovery project.
The project launched on the new Improvement section on the OPTN website, which is devoted to showcasing the benefits of collaborative improvement methodology.
“We’re excited to launch a platform to showcase the improvement work that our members are doing, and the hard work the collaborative improvement team does to support it,” says Kristen Sisaithong, UNOS’ Assistant Director of Organizational Excellence.
Pediatric liver discovery project aims to improve processes
The participating member hospitals have a history of both deceased and living donor as well as split pediatric liver transplants. The project aims to help hospitals improve their pediatric liver programs’ processes.
The discovery project involves approximately a dozen hospitals and has three areas of focus:
- Pre-transplant management
- Split liver transplantation
- Living donor transplantation
Pre-work and coaching visits will take place through March and April, followed by improvement cycles that occur through October. The year will close with an evaluation phase in December.
“All teach, all share, all learn”
OPTN collaborative improvement projects are not prescriptive, but rather opportunities to help drive process improvement from within each organization or program. Each project will focus on a different improvement area, but they will be based upon the collaborative improvement model developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
By tracking progress and sharing key learnings in a supportive environment—coached by UNOS performance improvement specialists—the donation and transplant community can help each other improve organizational processes, become more efficient and increase lifesaving transplants.
Explore the new Improvement section on the OPTN website to learn more about collaborative improvement, understand the impact the methodology has already had on transplantation, and find out about upcoming projects.
Want to know more about collaborative improvement at UNOS? Read success stories from the three-year kidney COIIN or email [email protected].
