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 (expire on Feb. 28, 2021)
- Vessel labels – 2 x 4 (expire 2/28/2021)
- Vessel labels – 2 x 5 (expire 2/28/2021)
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
New learning series combines multiple patient safety resources
Find multiple resources to help you apply the 2013 PHS Guideline recommendations and any OPTN safety-related policy to your current practices.
Important Disease Transmission Reporting Clarification
Transplant professionals need to review the recently updated Notes section of the Pathogens of Special Interest document. If one of your recipients tests positive for HCV after their transplant, and they received an organ from an HCV Ab positive/NAT negative donor,...
Voluntary recall of Cardinal Health brand sterile conventional syringes and needles
International Medsurg Connection (IMC), a wholesale medical supply distributor, has voluntarily recalled its sterile conventional syringes and needles in Cardinal Health private label packaging. Your organization might have received notice from Cardinal Health about this recall. Learn more.
Guidance regarding donor Toxoplasma screening and organ acceptance
Some additional information to help you decide whether to accept organ offers from donors with a positive or pending Toxo screening result. Also information on how best to treat Toxo-negative recipients of organs from Toxo-positive donors.
Special public comment period begins March 27 for guidance document
Document addresses communication with patients regarding increased risk donors; recording of an April 4 webinar is now available.
FDA Alert Addresses Potentially Contaminated SPS-1 Static Preservation Solution
Review the FDA’s most recent update published on March 9, 2017.
Most recent update (Jan. 29) on the bacterial contamination of SPS-1
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued an additional Epi-X update regarding reports of potentially contaminated organ preservation solution. This is an update to information posted on January 12.
Update: Mycobacterium chimaera infections associated with heater-cooler devices
Read the updated FDA alert that contains specific recommendations for health care facilities and staff.
Federal safety alerts on heater cooler devices
Some of the adverse events reported have been related to cardiothoracic surgery, although other reports did not specify the procedure.
We have completed mass update to HBV NAT positive candidate acceptance criteria
On August 10 we implemented policy changes related to screening donor organs for infectious diseases. As a result, if your candidate was listed as willing to accept a Hepatitis B Core antibody positive organ, then the system also indicated YES for willingness to accept an HBV NAT positive organ.