*Purpose: The shortage of organs for transplantation in the United States has endured for decades despite the efforts of transplantation professionals, organ procurement organizations, volunteer health agency leaders, clergy, and government officials advocating for organ donation after death. Among organizations participating in these educational efforts are the organ procurement organizations (OPOs). Using data from multiple sources we examined the relationship between OPO spending on education and OPO performance metrics.

*Methods: OPO cost data was obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request for the 52 independent OPOs for the years 2013 to 2018 (Form CMS-216-94; n=289 OPO-years). OPO performance was examined using the standardized donation rate (SDRR), obtained from the OPO Specific Reports. Eligible deaths for each OPO and year were also obtained from these reports. We created the new CMS metric for assessment of donation rates from the CDC’s Detailed Multiple Cause of Death (MCOD) data. Associations between education spending and OPO performance measures were assessed with repeated measures linear regression and by regressing the change in spending on the change in donation rates across the years using linear regression.

*Results: From 2013 to 2018, the OPOs reported total expenses of $10.7 billion. Over $650 million (6.1%) was spent on education over the 6-year period: $260,491,441 for public education and $394,287,085 for professional education. Increased spending on public education by an OPO was associated with an increase in the CMS donation rate. There was no statistically significant association with spending on professional education and the CMS donation rate and no association between the SDRR and either measure of educational spending, professional or public. By employing our finding of an increase in donation rate of 1.08 percentage points for each one million dollar increase in public education spending (p=0.02), we estimate an extra 1,567 donors per $1 million dollars or $638 for each additional donor.

*Conclusions: Our data revealed a positive association between OPO public education spending and organ donation. More work is needed to understand the mechanism of this association and should consider state registration rates. Future work should also consider the association of non-OPO spending on education with organ donation.

« Back to 2022 American Transplant Congress