Intermountain Healthcare, DonorConnect, and InVita Healthcare Technologies have launched the iReferral platform in Utah and Idaho to streamline the critical first step in the organ, tissue and eye donation-transplantation process.
iReferral automates the identification and referral of potential donors and helps to better utilize hospital and donation resources so that caregivers can spend more time with patients and families.
“Streamlining the donor referral process for the Intermountain teams gives our caregivers critical time back to spend more time with patients,” said Diane Alonso, MD, transplant surgeon and medical director of Intermountain Healthcare’s abdominal transplant program. “Collaborating and improving our workflow will also result in more donors, especially for those waiting for a critical life-saving donor organ.”
iReferral eliminates the need for manual, phone-based referral processes. iReferral sends time-sensitive information from the hospital’s electronic health record system directly to the transplant donation management system. Confirmation is immediate and automatically logged into the hospital’s electronic medical record system, helping to streamline regulatory compliance requirements, including those for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
“DonorConnect is excited to embrace any tool that helps streamline the organ recovery and transplant process, and ensure positive outcomes for transplant recipients,” said Tracy Schmidt, executive director and president of DonorConnect. “We’ve been eager to implement iReferral, and experience the improved efficiencies that the system will deliver.”
Following a successful pilot launch at Intermountain Medical Center in early 2022, iReferral has been launched across Intermountain Healthcare’s critical care units at Intermountain Medical Center and Intermountain McKay-Dee Hospital, with plans to deploy to additional hospital and units later this year.
“iReferral represents a unique win and step forward for all involved in the donation-transplantation ecosystem,” said Wade Liu, vice president of product for InVita Healthcare Technologies’ Transplant division. “Hospitals can bolster compliance to federal requirements to refer potential donors. Nurses and providers can stay at the bedside and focus on patients, and families can be offered the opportunity to donate at the appropriate and right time. All of this helps maximize the gift of organ, tissue, and eye transplantation for the many currently in need.”
