The United Network for Organ Sharing has published a first-of-a-kind report that details center-specific organ acceptance rates at transplant centers throughout the United States. The UNOS 1997 Report of Center Specific Organ Acceptance Rates statistically analyzes organ acceptance rates nationally and by center and includes center-specific information on the reasons that centers decline organs. The analysis was designed to determine whether organ acceptance practices predict other aspects of the performance of a transplant center. One of the findings was that about 75% of transplanted organs are accepted by the first or second center to which they are offered. In a press release, UNOS emphasized that no consistent correlation was found between acceptance rates and other important performance measures, such as patient survival rates, waiting times, or waiting list death rates.
"The lack of a consistent correlation between most performance measures does not mean that there is never a relationship between a center’s acceptance rates and its patient’s access to timely transplantation. It does mean, however, that acceptance rates below or above what would be expected based upon national data do not enable us to predict survival rates or likelihood of receiving timely transplants," said UNOS president Lawrence G. Hunsicker, MD.
The report also found that about 90% of transplant centers had organ acceptance rates equal to or above the rates that would be expected based on national data and that centers with relatively few transplant surgeons on staff did not necessarily have low acceptance rates. UNOS said that patients should be careful when evaluating a center’s reasons for refusing an organ. "If this data tells us anything, it tells us that transplantation is highly individualized," said John Newmann, PhD, a kidney transplant recipient who participated in the study.
The full report can be viewed at UNOS’s web site: http://www.unos.org/.
For Your Information:
United Network for Organ Sharing
1100 Boulders Parkway, Suite 500, PO Box 13770, Richmond, VA 23225
804-330-8500
Please be aware that medical advice, diagnoses and physician references cannot be obtained from this site.