Patient safety
Important COVID-19 updates and latest data
Keeping patients safe
Find alerts, policies and guidance to keep transplant patients safe and reduce the risk for disease transmission here:
Patient safety resources
Disease transmission
PDDTE policy changes – effective 9/1/2016
- Policy notice
- Pathogens of special interest
- FDA-cleared assays, used to determine toxoplasmosis immune status or diagnosis
Other resources
- Zika virus information for organ donation and transplant professionals (7/2016)
- Frequently asked questions about the 2013 PHS guideline
- West Nile Virus risk factors and evaluating potential living donors
- Recognizing central nervous system infections in potential deceased organ donors
- HTLV-1 screening and confirmation in potential donors and reporting potential HTLV-1 infection
- Recognizing seasonal and geographically endemic infections in organ donors; considerations during living donor evaluation
ABO
Go to UNOS Connect and sign in to access all webinar recordings for transplant professionals. Learn more about UNOS Connect and other educational offerings.
Other resources
- OPTN policy 5: organ offers, acceptance, and verification (6/2016)
- System changes related to ABO verification policy are now in place (6/2016)
- OPO Pre-Recovery Verification Template (added 6/28/2016)
- ABO Subtyping Organ Donors for Blood Groups A and AB
- Living Donor OR Verification template (revised 5/2017)
- Recipient OR Verification template (revised 5/2017)
- ABO donor recipient compatibility chart (added 4/2016)
- Electronic Medical Record (EMR) suggested data fields (revised 5/2016)
Vessels
Go to UNOS Connect and sign in to access all webinar recordings for transplant professionals. Learn more about UNOS Connect and other educational offerings.
Other resources
- Update for OPOs about TransNet labels for extra vessels (12/4/2018)
- OPOs must use sterile internal labels for extra vessels beginning 9/1/2015 (Updated 2/1/2019)
- Policy 16: Organ and Vessel Packaging, Labeling, Shipping, and Storage
- FAQs
Labels (begin using on Mar. 1, 2021)
- Vessel labels – 2 x 4 (take effect 3/1/2021)
- Vessel labels – 2 x 5 (take effect 3/1/2021)
Effective practices
Go to UNOS Connect and sign in to access all webinar recordings for transplant professionals. Learn more about UNOS Connect and other educational offerings.
Root cause analysis
UNetSM
Use this application to enter data on candidates, recipients and donors. If you can’t access the site, your hospital or OPO site administrator can help you.
Important patient safety notices
Voluntary recall addresses Vecuronium Bromide
If your institution has stock from any of the affected lots, please contact your supplier.
Resource lists lower respiratory tract testing available
Tests authorized by the FDA to analyze lower respiratory tract specimens.
AST Innovation Award presented to DTAC
Committee honored for big ideas and out of the box thinking that has made a significant impact on transplantation.
AJT article reports on 10 years of potential donor-derived transmission events
It is very rare for patients receiving transplants to have a donor-derived disease transmission, according to a recently published study.
Public Health Service guidance updated regarding donor screening for bloodborne disease transmission
OPTN to review and revise policies for consistency with updated guidelines.
Special pathogens update
If an organ donor tests positive for carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, coronavirus or influenza, they must be reported in the UNet Improving Patient Safety portal as a potential donor-derived disease transmission event.
CMS issues COVID-19 guidance to health care providers
The new adult elective surgery and procedure guidelines prioritizes transplant surgeries as essential care.
Field notification addresses perfusion circuit sample port
Recall affects specified lots of Organ Recovery Systems’ LKT200 Perfusion Circuit Sample Port
Recall notice affects Sodium chloride vials
A manufacturer of retail drugs has issued a voluntary recall of a product used in recovery and preparation of donor lungs.
Recall notice affects IV solutions
ICU Medical Inc. has issued a voluntary recall for four specified lots of intravenous sodium chloride solutions and one specified lot of intravenous dextrose solution due to the potential for flexible container leaks.