If you have a condition leading to organ failure, your doctor may recommend you as a candidate for an organ transplant.
A transplant hospital, also known as a transplant center, must evaluate and accept you for a transplant before you can be considered a transplant candidate. Each hospital uses its own criteria to decide whether or not to accept someone as a transplant candidate.
How am I considered for organs from deceased donors?
A transplant hospital enters medical data about you into a computerized matching program. The program then considers you for available organs based on a combination of medical factors. These factors include:
- Blood and tissue type.
- Medical urgency.
- Body size.
- Distance between the donor and transplant hospital.
- Time spent waiting for a transplant.
The distance between the donor and transplant hospital is important because the less time the organ must be preserved outside the donor’s body, the better the chance that it will function when transplanted. For this reason, the matching system will often consider candidates at transplant hospitals close to the donor location before other candidates at hospitals farther away. However, it is still possible to be a candidate for an organ that is further away.
What is multiple listing?
Multiple listing involves registering at two or more transplant hospitals. Being listed at multiple hospitals may increase your chances of receiving an organ.
Some transplant programs may not accept multiple-listed patients. Others may set their own requirements for multiple-listed candidates. If you are considering multiple listing, you should ask the transplant team how they handle such requests.
At UPMC, we accept multiple-listed patients.
Could multiple listing shorten my waiting time for a transplant?
Some studies suggest multiple listing can shorten the average waiting times of transplant candidates by several months. However, it does not guarantee that every multiple-listed patient will have a shorter waiting time. If you are in need of a liver transplant or kidney transplant, finding a living donor can reduce your wait time for a transplant.
At UPMC, we believe that living donation is a first-line option for patients on the waiting list. We discuss it with every patient being evaluated for a liver or kidney transplant, even if you have been deemed high-risk and have been turned down for a transplant at another center.
What is involved in multiple listing?
As with any transplant listing, you must be considered and accepted by a transplant hospital. This involves completing an evaluation and agreeing to meet any conditions set by the program (for example, ability to come to the hospital within a certain time if you are called for an organ offer). Check with your insurance provider to see if they will reimburse the cost of additional evaluations.
You should also consider other costs associated with listing that insurance may not cover. For example, you may need to pay for travel and lodging if the hospital is further from your home. You should also find out whether your post-transplant medical care will be provided at the transplant hospital or can be transferred to a facility closer to your home.
In addition, you need to maintain current lab results and contact information for each transplant program where you list. Each program will need current information should they receive an organ offer for you.
If I list at more than one hospital, how is my waiting time considered?
Depending on the organ you need, waiting time may be a factor in matching you for an organ offer. Waiting time is a more important factor for certain organ types, such as kidney and pancreas. It is less of a factor with heart, lung, liver, and intestinal organs. For these organs, more priority is given for factors such as medical urgency.
If you are listed for a kidney transplant, your waiting time will be calculated from when you start dialysis to treat kidney failure. Your waiting time will be the same at each transplant program where you list, as long as each program has the same information about when you started dialysis.
If you are listed for any other organ type, your waiting time at each hospital will start from the date that program listed you. The longest amount of time you have waited at any hospital is called your primary waiting time. The Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network (OPTN) policy allows you to transfer your primary waiting time to another hospital, or to switch time between programs. You are not allowed to add up or split your total waiting time among multiple hospitals. Any request to transfer or switch waiting time must be approved by the transplant programs(s) involved. Most transplant programs require a written request to swap or transfer waiting time, which will then be considered by the transplant team.
Can I multiple list at an out of state transplant center?
You can multiple list in any state, at any center, at any distance from your home. You will be offered deceased donor organs within 250 miles of the center you list at. Because of this, if you multiple list, you will be in larger and different pools of deceased donor organs. This allows you to be exposed to as many deceased donors as possible to increase your chance of receiving an organ offer.
Why Choose UPMC
For more than 40 years, experts at UPMC have been providing lifesaving transplant options. Established in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1981, our footprint is constantly expanding and the number of adults and children who travel to UPMC for transplant care continues to grow. Our adult and pediatric transplant programs include heart transplant, lung transplant, kidney/pancreas transplant, liver transplant, living-donor liver transplant, living-donor kidney transplant, and intestinal transplant. Our locations include UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and UPMC Montefiore in Pittsburgh, Pa., UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pa., and UPMC Harrisburg in Harrisburg, Pa.
Our experts have a distinguished history of pioneering and refining new transplant procedures, making it possible to provide a second chance at life for patients who otherwise would not have been a candidate for transplantation. Today, UPMC is home to one of the oldest and largest transplant programs in the country.
To learn more visit UPMC.com/Transplant. To schedule a transplant evaluation, email transplant@upmc.edu or call 833-398-0285.