Purpose: Living donor coordinators (LDC) are the frontline healthcare providers for potential living kidney donors. However, there is limited research regarding LDC perceptions of barriers to living donation. This study seeks to describe LDC perceptions of the most common barriers to increasing the number of live donor transplants as well as the actions that could be taken to increase those numbers.

Method: A mailed survey was sent to the living donor coordinator (LDC) at every U.S. living donor program (n=211; response rate=70%, total respondents=148). Qualitative reports were categorized into themes. Descriptive statistics summarized response themes.

Results: A total of 438 barriers were reported from the 148 respondents. The quality of the donor pool/health status of potential donors was identified as the most common barrier (26%). Lack of education and outreach regarding living donation (17%) and lack of staffing (14%) were also frequently reported barriers. The most commonly cited actions that could be taken to increase LD transplant numbers were outreach and education about living donation (26%), recipient education about living donation (19%), and dedicated staff/additional living donor staff (17%) (Table 1).

Conclusions: This research is an important first step to identification of barriers to living kidney donation from frontline healthcare providers. Future research is needed to better understand barriers and identify interventions that could potentially increase living donation and improve living donor education.

CITATION INFORMATION: Moore D., Dietrich M., Buerhaus P., Rodrigue J., Minnick A. National Survey of Living Donor Coordinators to Identify Barriers to Living Donation Am J Transplant. 2017;17 (suppl 3).

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