CHA Recognizes Hartford Hospital’s Transplant Program With the 2024 John D. Thompson Award for Excellence in the Delivery of Healthcare Through the Use of Data
WALLINGFORD – The Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA) awarded Hartford Hospital the 2024 John D. Thompson Award for Excellence in the Delivery of Healthcare Through the Use of Data for its Adult Kidney Transplant Program. Hartford Hospital was presented with the prestigious award at the 2024 CHA Annual Meeting that took place on June 13, 2024 at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville.
Hartford Hospital’s Adult Kidney Transplant Program has reimagined the hospital’s approach to kidney transplant waitlist management, organ acceptance, and post-transplant care. Through review of data and assessment of protocols, the hospital achieved the best-observed patient outcomes for one-year kidney allograft survival of all kidney transplant programs in the United States (as reported by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients). The team’s work resulted in increasing rates of kidney transplant and improved quality metrics, even as additional challenges to transplants in Connecticut increased.
“I am so proud of our team for their continued high performance and successful outcomes in kidney graft survival rates, setting the standard for excellence in healthcare,” said Bimal Patel, President, Hartford Hospital & Hartford Region. “This extraordinary accomplishment and remarkable success would not be possible without the dedication and expertise of the entire kidney transplant team. What makes this team even more inspiring is the level of commitment that goes well beyond providing worldclass healthcare to patients. We have had a transplant coordinator, nurses and many other colleagues who have elected to become kidney donors – saving the lives of strangers across the country. This team truly exemplifies excellence and compassion – it is who we are and what we stand for – it is our mission.”
“It’s an honor to present this award in recognition of the innovative and high-quality care provided by Hartford Hospital that has changed lives and saved lives,” said Jennifer Jackson, CEO, CHA. “This program shows how a team can use data to support innovative and creative solutions to improve care, and increase access to healthcare. We applaud the team for their exceptional achievements in increasing transplant rates, improving patient outcomes, and giving new life to their patients.”
The number of patients waiting for kidney transplants continues to exceed the number of organs available and transplants performed. When the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the administrator of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), comprehensively altered the kidney allocation policy’s determining factors in 2019, the changes created new challenges for transplant centers such as those in Connecticut. Situated between two large urban areas, New York City and Boston, the new changes in allocation would potentially represent preferential distribution of kidney allografts to transplant centers in those locations due to larger numbers of waitlisted patients.
Faced with the prospect of performing fewer kidney transplants and potentially using higher-risk organs, resulting in poorer patient and allograft survival, Hartford Hospital adopted a new approach. To comprehensively address concerns about maintaining the number of transplants, the hospital created a weekly status review meeting to review patients in all phases of kidney transplant evaluation and then disseminated a weekly list of those patients most likely to be transplanted in the next week to ensure there were no gaps in their evaluations to preclude them from receiving offers. Through this active 360- degree review of patients, the hospital more than doubled the transplant rate.
By using the Kidney Offer Acceptance tool to review organs that were accepted or declined coupled with post-transplant outcomes, the hospital was able to determine if organs with potential higher risk for worse patient and allograft survival (i.e., deceased donors from older donors, donors with medical or surgical risk factors) resulted in poorer outcomes for patients. This enabled the hospital to tailor offer acceptance to individual patients and improve outcomes.
The John D. Thompson Award was established in 1994 to honor the contributions made by John D. Thompson to healthcare administration and patient care quality during his career. Recipients are selected based on how the hospital or healthcare system successfully improved patient care due to a modification in process as substantiated through the use of data.
Learn more about the program by watching the award recognition video here.
