Converting Family Advocates to Level 1 Recovery Coordinators

Abstract

Purpose The family advocate plays a crucial role in the organ and tissue procurement process for transplantation and research. This responsibility can weigh profoundly on the consent/conversion rates for family advocates. Some potential donor families consider time as a critical factor when deciding to donate. It was hypothesized that case time will decrease by ≥20% if family advocates were trained to become level 1 recovery coordinators and utilized during organ only cases with brain-dead donors. Methods Six family advocates were divided into two groups: group A and group B. Both groups were trained to utilize the initial steps for beginning organ cases: (1) obtain verbal consent; (2) complete consent documentation; (3) obtain coroner clearance; (4) contact admissions and switch over care of the patient from hospital to organ procurement organization (OPO); (5) ask RN to draw blood for serology and HLA; (6) complete initial order set; (7) enter admission course/donor demographics/hospital referral data, labs into OPO database. For 6 months the family advocates in group A completed only steps 1 to 3 after obtaining consent. Similarly, family advocate/level 1 coordinators in group B completed steps 1 to 7 for 6 months, while the intensive care unit coordinator was en route. Data were compiled indicating the length of time for cases. Result Group A family advocates' length of case time was 5 hours more from start of case to operating room than that of group B. Similarly, group A had four hours more from start of case to end of case than group B. Conclusion The results indicate that family advocates who can function in the role of level 1 recovery coordinators may decrease donor management by hours. Incorporating family services with donor management can improve the standard in the donation process.