An organ transplant center is a hospital that registers patients on the national waiting list and performs organ transplants. The transplant team at the transplant center evaluates each person in need of an organ before transplant. The team includes:

• Doctors
• Nurse practitioners
• Surgeons
• Transplant coordinators
• Social workers
• Financial counselors
• Nutritionists
• Neuropsychologists
• Pharmacy specialists

This specialized team works with patients throughout the transplant process. Transplant centers are committed to delivering the highest quality and safest healthcare to patients. Within a transplant center, there are transplant program(s) focusing on a particular organ such as kidney. As such a transplant center can have more than one transplant program.

Transplanted organs can come from both deceased and living donors.

Organs from deceased organ donors include: kidneys (2), liver, lungs (2), heart, pancreas, and intestines. In 2014, hands and faces were added to the organ transplant list.

Organs from living organ donors include: one kidney, a lung, or a portion of the liver, pancreas, or intestine.

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) is a unique public-private partnership that links all professionals involved in the U.S. donation and transplantation system. Also crucial to the system are registered organ donors, people who comment on policy proposals and countless volunteers who support donation and transplantation, among many others.

The National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) established the OPTN in 1984. In 2000, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) implemented a final rule establishing a regulatory framework for the structure and operations of the OPTN.)

With all of OPTN’s collective efforts focused on patients, the goals of the OPTN are to increase the number of and access to transplants, improve survival rates after transplantation, and to promote patient safety and efficient management of the system.

The OPTN acts through its board of directors and committees, who bring a wealth of commitment and technical knowledge to guide us. Committees address issues of concern in the transplant community. The board establishes and maintains transplant policies (operational rules) and bylaws (membership requirements) that govern the OPTN.

OPTN Patient Services Line (Operated by United Network for Organ Sharing) is available at 888-894-6361, Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET.

The SRTR is responsible for providing statistical and other analytic support to the OPTN for purposes including the formulation and evaluation of organ allocation and other OPTN policies. Additionally, SRTR provides analytic support to HHS in a variety of areas including: policy formulation and evaluation, system performance metrics, economic analysis, and preparation of recurring and special reports to Congress.

Section 373 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act requires the operation of SRTR to support ongoing evaluation of the scientific and clinical status of solid organ transplantation. The U.S. Congress passed the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA; P.L. 98-507) in 1984.