To speed up the communication, the iReferral system allows for patient data to be transferred in real time from a hospital’s electronic medical records to those of a procurement organization, said Helen Irving, president and CEO of LiveOnNY. In turn, the organization is able to send a representative to the hospital without first having to speak with a doctor or nurse.
The system is expected to help improve the efficiency of the overall donation process, Irving said.
“It really automates the referral process,” Irving said of iReferral. “In the future we should all be connected.”
Initial calls from hospitals to organ-procurement organizations can be delayed during peak times. Once made, it can take between 10 and 30 minutes to source information about whether an organ is suitable for donation, she said.
Time is critical when it comes to the viability of organs and especially tissues, Irving said. The iReferral system allows for automatically prescreening patients for precluding conditions, such as cancer or sepsis.
“We know that when we have an earlier referral, we have a better opportunity of a family saying yes to donation,” she added.
Nationwide, more than 70% of procurement organizations use Transplant Connect’s electronic medical records software.
LiveOnNY, based in Hudson Yards, received a small grant to implement iReferral, and the hope is to expand its use to additional area hospitals, Irving said.
This is important because the pandemic devastated local organ donation in the first half of the year, on the heels of a record 2019. Before Covid-19, LiveOnNY was targeting about 400 organ donors and 1,100 organs transplanted this year. In June it recorded 25 organ donors and nearly 70 transplants, starting its way back up to normal levels.
