As a community, we know that every transplantable organ from a deceased donor starts with a “yes.”
This single word, which is a sign of hope for more than 100,000 people on the national transplant waiting list, is a focus of MediGO’s Organ TeamLink™ software solution. Since its launch in the summer of 2022, Organ TeamLink has helped organ procurement organizations (OPOs) optimize their response to organ donor referrals to get more yeses and recover more organs for transplant.
The development of Organ TeamLink was made possible by support from Mid-America Transplant, the St. Louis-based OPO serving parts of Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas, which provided feedback throughout the design process and was the first to experience results after implementing the solution.
“Organ TeamLink allows Mid-America Transplant to leverage our workforce to ensure we respond to referrals in a timely and efficient manner to help us fulfill our mission to increase the availability of organs and tissues for those who need them,” says Kevin Lee, executive vice president and chief operations officer at Mid-America Transplant.
The OPO, whose designated service area (DSA) spans 46,000 square miles, says Organ TeamLink helps the organization more effectively deploy its people to evaluate the potential for donation and to speak with the donor’s family.
“Prior to MediGO engagement, we had received a standard referral for a patient on the eighth floor of a hospital in our DSA,” says Lee. “We had deployed staff per our protocols. Shortly after deploying that staff member, we received a referral call from the 10th floor.”
Lee says, unfortunately, without visibility into where the first team member was located, Mid-America Transplant deployed a second team member, which was an inefficient use of the OPO’s resources.
“Those two referrals were about 60 vertical feet apart,” says Lee. “We just needed to ask the person on-site to go upstairs.”
While Organ TeamLink provides short-term benefits, such as helping OPOs like Mid-America Transplant visualize their personnel in the field and respond to referrals with ease, it also has the potential to provide long-term benefits.
Data collected by the solution over time can be used to set new goals and expectations. OPOs utilizing Organ TeamLink can pull relevant data to see where and at what time of day they should be scheduling their team members for optimal performance. They can look for new opportunities to improve decision-making and increase equity in referral response and authorization rates.
“To us, Organ TeamLink is about an ongoing commitment to excellence,” says Lee. “This solution ensures that we are able to steward these gifts as effectively as possible.”
Mid-America Transplant will share more insider tips about their team’s product adoption, socialization and three-part implementation plan during the second installment of a two-part Organ TeamLink webinar series on Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 2 pm EST. Register now to join the conversation and get your questions answered.
For a more in-depth look at Organ TeamLink’s unique features designed to help OPOs streamline their response to organ donor referrals, visit gomedigo.io