Responsibility for organ retrieval to change hands

Monday, August 10, 1998

Responsibility for organ retrieval to change hands

CENTER: Missed minimum guidelines will cause UCLA-based organ
donor program to close down

By Matt Grace

Daily Bruin Contributor

After failing to meet minimum standards, federal authorities
have stripped a UCLA-based organ-donor program of its certification
and enlisted another agency to assume control.

As a result, the Southern California Organ Procurement Center
(SCOPC) will take over the operation of the UCLA-based Regional
Organ Procurement Agency (ROPA) by Nov. 1, said Ama Neel, chief
operating officer of the SCOPC.

Federal authorities requested the redesignation after ROPA fell
short in three of five minimum requirements.

The donor program did not meet the following standards: total
number of kidneys transplanted, total number of kidneys recovered
and total number of extra-renal organs – hearts, lungs and livers –
recovered, Neel said.

As a result, ROPA will no longer be eligible to receive Medicare
funding, Neel said.

The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) – part of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – oversees all organ
procurement agencies in the United States.

In 1996, the HCFA implemented retroactive standards to be met by
all the organ procurement agencies across the country.

Although ROPA made modifications – adding staff and creating new
programs – they did not meet the standards in 1994-95, nor during
1996.

Since the HCFA applied the certification standards for a period
prior to the changes made by ROPA, increases in organ procurement,
ethnic minority enrollment and outreach programs were not
considered by the federal board.

"ROPA representatives traveled to [the] HCFA to demonstrate the
substantial improvement that had been achieved since the
redesignation, but their efforts were rebuffed," according to a
statement released by ROPA.

All of the organ procurement organizations in the country,
however, were evaluated by the same standards, said Sandra
Sternburg, a spokeswoman for the SCOPC.

ROPA has been recovering organs from 90 hospitals in the Los
Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties for the last 25 years.
Organs obtained by ROPA have been distributed mainly to transplant
centers in the Los Angeles area.

The UCLA Medical Center is the primary recipient of organs
obtained by ROPA.

As a result of the decision, the SCOPC will become the largest
organ-procurement center in the state in terms of the number of
donor hospitals, transplants centers and populations served. It
will be responsible for all of Los Angeles County, in addition to
Orange, Kern, San Bernadino, Riverside, Santa Barbara and Ventura
counties.

Although the SCOPC has been informed to prepare for operation in
the new service area, ROPA has not ceased their efforts to be
reinstated.

"ROPA is currently exploring its options in terms of the action
it might be taking," said Simi Singer, spokeswoman for ROPA.

ROPA has declined to comment any further.

In the meantime, the staff at ROPA – who are not employed by the
university – have been given 90 days notice before the SCOPC takes
over the operations.

The SCOPC has not addressed the issue of ROPA staff retention in
their preparation to take over.

"At this point, we don’t know yet," Sternburg said. "We haven’t
got into staffing issues yet."