*Purpose: Kidney waitlist management continues to be a challenge for many transplant centers for a variety of reasons. Over the years, the number of Status 7 or inactive waitlisted kidney patients has become a larger percentage of transplant centers’ waitlists.

*Methods: In April 2021, our program made the decision to do an in-depth review of our Status 7 list to ensure we were making every effort to get patients reactivated, as well as determine which patients are no longer appropriate candidates and remove them from the waiting list. In order to meet this goal for our Status 7 waitlisted patients, our team convened a multidisciplinary meeting 2-3 times weekly over the course of two months and completed an in-depth review of the 320 inactive patients on our list. A full chart audit was completed by our Quality team prior to each meeting, ensuring we could conduct a thorough and efficient review of every Status 7 case and determine a path forward for each patient.

*Results: At the time of this submission, our Status 7 waitlist is now 147 patients. We have also reactivated a total of 88 patients, 19 of whom have been already been transplanted. Of the 320 patients, 114 have been deemed to no longer be transplant candidates and have been removed from our waitlist. According to the latest available OPTN data at the time of this submission from November 30, 2021, we also now have the highest percentage of active patients on our waitlist, as compared to other local centers, at 88.5% (see Figure 1).

*Conclusions: Our center recognized the need for an in-depth review of our status 7 list to ensure we were meeting our goal of giving every patient their best chance at a successful transplant. We have demonstrated that it is possible to make positive and impactful progress on the management of the inactive portion of our waitlist in a relatively short amount of time through a proactive and collaborative team approach. In addition, we have reframed how we utilize the Status 7 designation within our program to ensure all patients placed on Status 7 have a documented, clear path to reactivation moving forward.

« Back to 2022 American Transplant Congress