U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
No change is too small to deliver improvement
Participants are coached by our collaborative improvement professionals to develop and choose the tools that best fit their organizations and processes. In the journey to advance transplantation and donation, small changes have the potential to drive improvement and deliver meaningful impact.
- Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center had a goal of lowering their kidney patients’ average time from referral to listing. During the OPTN’s COIIN pilot collaborative, Memorial Hermann developed a PDSA plan to split their pre-transplant coordinators into two teams, decreasing their inactive portion of their waiting list to 31 percent during their participation.
Read how their collaborative improvement helped the center enhance the efficiency of the referral and evaluation process. - When the University of Iowa Organ Transplant Center joined an OPTN pilot collaborative, they seized the opportunity to improve their internal processes and guidelines related to identifying potential candidates for offers of high-KDPI organs. This also involved more focused education of patients in order to gain consent.
Learn how they developed a checklist item for patient consent, increasing the percentage of patients listed for high-KDPI kidneys. - Having a high percentage of inactive candidates on a waitlist can lead to increased patient risk and a lower rate of transplantation. When Thomas Jefferson University Hospital participated in an OPTN collaborative, they focused on inactivity stemming from patient BMI. Their waitlist coordinators developed clearly defined goals for patients and help them meet their milestones.
Learn how they reactivated 34 patients on their waitlist during the nine-month collaborative experience.
In a previous OPTN transplantation collaborative that targeted increasing kidney utilization and reducing kidney discards, the Collaborative Innovation and Improvement Network (COIIN) explored:
- Reducing the risk-avoidance behaviors associated with the current monitoring system
- Developing and testing an alternative, data-rich quality monitoring framework
- Supporting a collaborative approach toward performance improvement and effective practices
Collaborative improvement resources that drive innovative change
Data and resource sharing
Discussion boards & virtual workspace
Monthly collaborative calls and learning webinars
Access to performance improvment coaching
Key driver/effective practice analysis
“We face similar challenges across the country. It was great to be able to work together as a transplant community to discuss these issues—what might not be a problem for your center is something you could help another center work through. The collaboration was priceless.”