Use of “Assisted Approach” to Increase Donation Authorization Rates

1. Use of “Assisted Approach” to Increase Donation Authorization Rates Authors: Martha Anderson, BACKGROUND RESULTS Most tissue donation (TD) conversations take place via telephone. This is in stark contrast to most organ donation conversations that take place face-to-face at the hospital. This conversation is frequently a “cold call”, made by the Tissue Bank (TB) without advance knowledge of the family that they will be contacted regarding tissue donation. • MTF received 21,419 TD referrals in 2010. Of those, 781 were DD and 130 were family-initiated. 6,760 were approached for TD by an HCP, OPO/EB or MTF DC. Aggregate DA rates for all 8 sites are: • DA obtained on 78% of approaches made by OPO/EB • DA obtained on 64% of Assisted Approach Calls • DA obtained on 33% of Cold Calls • TD obtained on 2% of approaches made by HCP AIM • Five methods for obtaining donor authorization (DA) are used: • Donor Designation (DD) - the potential donor is a legally registered donor • Assisted Approach (AA) - healthcare professionals (HCP) inform family members that they will be contacted regarding donation • Cold Calls (CC) – family is called by a donation coordinator (DC) but have been given no prior donation information by the hospital • Hospital Approach (HA) - an HCP offers TD to the family • OPO/Eye Bank Approach - staff from the OPO or Eye Bank does so • We hypothesize that DA rates will be higher for AA than CC or HA. CONCLUSIONS Assisted Approach provides potential donor families donation information at the time of the death of a family member, and gives them advance notice that they will receive a telephone call to discuss donation. AA results in higher DA rates than CC or HA. Approaches made by an OPO coordinator are highest, but are most likely done face-to-face (these rates mirror organ donor rates). By far, the least successful donation conversations (e.g., those with the lowest DA rates) are those conducted by HCPs. Our efforts are aimed at working with hospitals to implement AA as a service to recently bereaved family members and as a way to increase tissue donors. Materials & Methods All donor referrals are entered in DonorTrac, an electronic donor records system used by MTF. Reasons for deferring donors, information regarding which DA process was used and final outcome is tracked. Data from 2010 was evaluated.