The most useful gift

There are more than fifteen thousand human organ transplants performed annually in the United States, and each year demand increases, outstripping the medical industry's ability to supply organs. Faced with this relative scarcity, policy makers and health care professionals are forced to question the basic policies of organ procurement. For example, should organ procurement continue to rely on voluntary donations? And are there organizational and policy solutions that could alleviate the continuing shortage of human organs? The Most Useful Gift, written for health care managers and policy makers, is the first comprehensive guide to understanding the challenges human organ procurement professionals face. In it, Jeffrey Prottas explains the organizational, technological, and social dynamics that make organ transplantation possible, and he offers specific suggestions on how to improve organ procurement and deal with the natural shortage of available human organs. By tracing the progress of the field from its beginning, Prottas shows how organ procurement organizations (OPOs) have improved the delivery and efficiency of transplantation to the point where the average OPO today is more effective at procuring organs than the top 10 percent were in 1982. Prottas explains which organizational innovations hold the best potential for increasing the supply of human organs. He shows how health care managers can increase the number of potential donors by making OPOs responsible for organ referrals, thereby avoiding the bottleneck effect that arises when doctors and nurses are chiefly responsible. And finally, by examining the ethical issues that arise in the face of a limited organ supply, Prottas explores the numerous challenges policy makers and health care professionals must address and stresses the need for sound government policy and public funding to allay doctor and patient concerns about adequate treatment and equal access.