Implementing minimum notification criteria for organ donation in an acute hospital's critical care units

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To increase the number of donated organs through an effective donor identification and referral scheme in a large acute hospital's critical care units. The barrier to successful organ transplantation is a serious shortage of donated organs. In January 2008, the Department of Health officially endorsed all 14 recommendations presented by the Organ Donation Taskforce. Recommendation 5 from the Taskforce is that minimum notification criteria for potential organ donation should be introduced on a UK-wide basis. A hospital policy entitled Required Referral was implemented into a large hospital trust consisting of four critical care units. Support from the trust board was sought and it was agreed that the policy would be implemented as a 'pilot policy' in the first instance, then a formal review after a 6-month period. A rolling education programme was instituted to incorporate 170 clinical staff to ensure the policy was activated with the following criteria: If the plan is to perform brain stem death tests on a patient or a clinical decision is made to withdraw treatment, the on-call donor transplant co-ordinator is contacted for an assessment of suitability. A significant increase in potential donor referrals and a 200% increase in donated organs has been achieved with the policy in place. A retrospective audit for the 6-month period prior to the policy launch had shown four referrals from the pilot sites. The following 12 months as the policy was implemented revealed an impressive 121 referrals to the transplant co-ordinator. This has resulted in nine successful multi-organ donors. The required referral scheme has clearly shown an impressive increase in donation activity within the trust. Donation has been embraced as a normal part of end of life care.