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Consultant Spotlight
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Alexander Aussi
BSN, RN, MBA
Chief Executive Officer
Alexander Aussi possesses over 25 years of experience in healthcare, 22 years in organ transplantation. Alexander has extensive experience in transplant administration, new transplant and VAD program setup, marketing, managed care relations, contract management and multiorgan transplant Medicare Acquisition cost centers. Alexander completed his BSN in 1990 from the Faculty of Medicine at the American University of Beirut. He finalized his nursing board certification from the University of the State of New York, Albany in 1994, and continued his MBA at Oklahoma City University from which he graduated with high honors in December 1995.
Read full bio
here.
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Guidry & East brings you
Transplant Insider
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a quarterly publication comprised of resources and news vital to developing your transplant business solutions for growing transplant programs, improving transplant operations, and the transplant financial product line.
We look forward to being your provider of the latest policies and procedures in quality patient care.
We offer expert consulting services to Transplant Centers to bring efficiency, improve financial results, and enhance quality patient care.
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Surprisingly, numerous Transplant Centers today still look at "The Transplant Event" as the only element of the Transplant Product Line. It is imperative that Transplant Centers evaluate all elements of the Transplant Product Line. Therefore, when Guidry & East conducts a financial assessment of a Transplant Center, we review the four phases of transplant: pre-transplant evaluations, pre-transplant medical and surgical maintenance, the transplant event, and post-transplant follow-up and re-admissions. A major component of the Transplant Product Line, and therefore of great importance in the financial assessment of the program, is the End-Stage Organ Failure revenues for each specific organ that a Center transplants.
Guidry & East creates a Financial Impact Statement for the Transplant Center, measuring cost and net revenue streams for the latest fiscal year-end. The impact statement includes medical and surgical encounters related to donors and transplant recipients. In addition we develop a Contribution Margin analysis for the latest fiscal year-end to include pre-transplant evaluations and the transplant event for each organ type.
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National Liver Review Board Implementation Postponed
The National Liver Review Board (NLRB) implementation, originally scheduled for January 31, 2019, is postponed. Unintended consequences were identified in the plan to base the model for end stage liver disease (MELD) exception scores on median MELD at transplant during the transitional period between NLRB implementation and implementation of the liver distribution system, which is planned for April 30, 2019.
Read article
here.
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Annual UNOS Staffing Survey
The 2018 UNOS staffing survey will be available on February 6.
Submit your center's UNOS Staffing Survey by
May 3, 2019, for a chance to win a prize at the 2019 UNOS Transplant Management Forum (TMF). Someone from your center must be present at the TMF staffing survey prize drawing to win.
Read article
here.
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Organ Transplants in United States Set Sixth Consecutive Record in 2018
The 36,527 organ transplants performed in the United States in 2018 set an annual record for the sixth straight year, according to preliminary data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). In 2018, the total number of organ transplants exceeded 750,000 performed since 1988, the first full year national transplant data were collected.
The number of transplants, using organs from both deceased and living donors, increased five percent over 2017. Approximately 81 percent (29,680) of the transplants performed in 2018 involved organs from deceased donors. Living donor transplants accounted for the remaining 19 percent (6,849). The number of living donor transplants represented the highest total since 2005 and increased nearly 11 percent over 2017.
Read article
here.
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Upcoming Policy Implementation Reminder for Labs and OPOs
By March 1, 2019, OPOs and the labs they work with will need to have a process in place to ensure that the raw HLA data for deceased donors is uploaded in DonorNet in the source documentation section. Members that upload HLA data directly into UNetSM will need to ensure that they have an internal process for verifying the accuracy of HLA data outlined in the written agreement between the lab and the center they serve.
Read policy notice.
If your lab or OPO is having trouble uploading HLA worksheets, you can find useful help documentation within DonorNet. Titled "Attaching Files to a Donor's Record", it's the third topic under the Donors heading. You can also visit UNOS Connect (accessible from UNet under the Resources tab) to find an instructional video. This 5 minute video titled Image Posting (course number SYS129) is available in the Systems category of the course catalog.
Read article
here.
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5-Tier System Moving from Beta Site to Public Site
In December 2016, SRTR launched a new website that displayed a new 5-tier outcome assessment for all transplant programs in the United States. This new system, which replaced a 3-tier system, was developed over a period of 5 years and approved by SRTR's Visiting Committee (SVC). However, in response to community feedback, the 5-tier system was moved to a beta website in February 2017, and was replaced by the previous 3-tier system on the main SRTR website. The intent of the beta site was to allow for more feedback and to consider additional improvements.
After applying multiple improvements based on feedback received, SRTR also recently called for public comment on the beta site changes and collected additional feedback for a period of 60 days (May 14, 2018 to July 13, 2018). Changes were made in response to the feedback received, and SRTR is pleased to announce that after receiving both HRSA and SVC approval, the 5-tier outcome assessment system
will be moving from the beta site to the public site on February 5, 2019.
Read article
here.
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Nominees Chosen for Board of Directors Election
The following slate of nominees has been approved for OPTN/UNOS Board of Directors appointments beginning in July 2019.
OPTN/UNOS member voting representatives will receive a ballot and biographical information for the nominees in February 2019.
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Data Definition Process in Place to Bring Clarity and Consistency to Transplant Forms
A cross-functional team of UNOS staff and OPTN members is working on a data governance initiative to improve the consistency and quality of OPTN data collection. The first set of data definitions using a new format are published in UNet online Help as of
January 15, 2019.
We will provide a list of revised definitions each quarter, to answer member questions about existing data fields and to clarify new requirements.
Read article
here.
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Public Comment Open January 22 through March 22, 2019
The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) is offering nine proposals for public comment beginning on Tuesday, January 22.
Comments and replies will be published on
We encourage patients, transplant candidates and recipients, living donors, donor families and transplant professionals to learn more about the proposals and provide valuable feedback to help shape U.S. organ transplant policy.
Read article
here.
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2019 Annual UNOS Request for Information is Available
UNOS Request for Information (RFI) documents for 2019 are available on the
UNet Transplant Administrators website.
Administrators can submit essential organ transplant program data to insurance and managed care companies.
See updates
here.
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Transplant Clinical Manager
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital has retained Transplant Leadership Institute to identify and recruit Transplant Clinical Manager for their Kidney/Pancreas program in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The position is responsible for
program's day to day clinical operations. The position will oversee the daily operations to provide high quality patient care services which meet and conform to all regulatory requirements.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
Bachelor's Degree in Nursing plus 5 years of experience in an appropriate allied health or hospital position required.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
Master's degree in a healthcare related field. At least two years' experience in transplantation.
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) New Brunswick, an RWJ Barnabas Health Facility, is a 600-bed academic medical center that serves as the principal teaching hospital of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the flagship Cancer Hospital of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.
RWJUH has been ranked among the best hospitals in America by U.S. News & World Report seven times and has been selected by the publication as a high performing hospital in numerous specialties. In addition, RWJUH has earned significant national recognition for clinical quality and patient safety, including the prestigious Magnet® Award for Nursing Excellence and "Most Wired" designation by Hospitals and Health Networks Magazine.
Interested candidates can respond in confidence with a full CV to:
Lisa Norris, Managing Principal at TLI,
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