State Begins Transplant Reviews

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The Pennsylvania Health Department has resumed its role of inspecting transplant programs across the state for compliance with federal standards and two facilities at opposite ends of the state have already been reviewed.
In reports recently made public state health surveyors found one deficiency at an Allentown hospital and concluded that a Pittsburgh facility met federal transplant requirements.
The deficiency was found at the Lehigh Valley Hospital while the Allegheny General program was judged in compliance with standards.
The responsibility to examine transplant programs shifts every three years from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to state health agencies. The last reviews of transplant programs by the state took place from 2010 to 2012.
The Allegheny General review took place in April while the Lehigh Valley review took place in mid-June.
At Lehigh state surveyors found that the person assigned to the job of "Living Donor Advocate" was the same person serving as a transplant social worker.
"The Living Donor Advocate," the report states, "must not be involved in transplant issues on a routine basis."
Hospital officials questioned during the June inspection said they had tried to limit the interaction between the advocate and the transplant team.
In a plan of correction hospital officials said the job of the living donor advocate was being shifted to a different department and a new policy would be put into effect ensuring that the advocate was not connected to the transplant team.
Brian Downs, a hospital spokesman, said the issue already has been resolved with the appointment of a new donor advocate.
The Allentown hospital was reviewed for two transplant programs, adult kidney and adult pancreas.
The spokesman said the hospital's transplant program has been in operation for 28 years and about 100 transplants are performed per year.
Allegheny General's transplant program includes heart, kidney, pancreas and liver.
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