DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Five of the nation’s leading organ procurement organizations (OPOs) today announced the creation of the Organ Donation Consortium (ODC) to provide transformational leadership in healthcare that will result in significant improvements in organ donation and transplantation for all Americans. Working together, these OPOs are committed to technological innovations and integrations, cross-sector stakeholder collaboration, and transparent accountability.
With this commitment, the ODC sets out to support legislation and regulations that will address health disparities and save more lives through organ donation and transplantation. Members of the consortium are: Donor Network West, Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency, Mid-America Transplant Services, OurLegacy and Southwest Transplant Alliance. These OPOs collectively represent a population of almost 38 million Americans.
New federal performance metrics and standards to hold OPOs accountable for their work have been proposed, debated and revised for the past three years, with finalized performance standards going into effect this year. The ODC has supported OPO reform efforts of Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services and supports further reforms under the Biden Administration. Reform efforts have been and continue to be necessary to better serve American patients who are awaiting a life-saving transplant.
The ODC’s strategic focus for further reform includes the open integration of systems among all stakeholders – donor hospitals, OPOs, and transplant centers – with the goals of:
- reducing inefficiencies and errors in the donation process;
- increasing the number of organs made available for transplant;
- improving quality through the donation process;
- reducing the time it takes to shepherd a life-saving organ from donor to recipient;
- reducing costs in the donation system;
- eliminating health disparities; and
- providing a framework for the consistent and reliable collection of data for performance measurement of all stakeholders that make organ donation and transplantation possible.
For more information about the ODC and its strategic initiatives, please contact odc@organ.org.