Pre-Transplant Coordinator | Lung

Pre-Transplant Coordinator | Lung at Houston Methodist Hospital summary:

The Pre-Transplant Coordinator is a registered nurse responsible for coordinating all phases of lung transplant patient care, including referral, evaluation, waiting period, and peri-operative processes. This role involves collaboration with the interprofessional transplant team, patient and family education, clinical assessment, and ensuring compliance with transplant regulations and quality measures. The coordinator also manages data reporting, financial authorization, and continuous professional development to support successful transplant outcomes and patient advocacy.

• Uses therapeutic communication in an active, positive, and effective manner with all transplant team members, patients, referring physicians, and other health care providers, reporting pertinent patient care and family data in a comprehensive and unbiased manner. Accurately communicates candidate's status and evaluation outcome and maintains communication while candidate is on the waitlist.

• Identifies and responds to the clinical, psychosocial, and economic needs of the transplant patient/family/caregiver during evaluation, waiting, and pre-operative transplant phases

• Fosters teamwork approach in all interactions with peers and team members. Anticipates needs of other team members; proactively offering assistance. Contributes to meeting department score for employee engagement.

• Coordinates with interprofessional team the evaluation process for potential transplant candidate, including, but not limited to Medical/Surgical evaluation, Psychosocial evaluation, Educational assessment, laboratory evaluation including serologies, tissue typing, and antibodies per protocol, radiological evaluation, and nutritional evaluation.

• Establishes mutual educational goals with patient and family/caregivers their responsibility throughout the transplant process and provides education and appropriate resources regarding living donor options, Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network of Organ Sharing (OPTN/UNOS) or National Marrow Donor Programs/Foundation for Accreditation of Cellular Therapy/Center of International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (NMDP/FACT/CIBMTR) regulations, where applicable.

• Recognizes potential problems, abnormal diagnostic findings, and/or significant changes during the waiting phase, coordinating required care. Collects and evaluates medical, psychosocial, and financial data for review by transplant team in the patient selection committee.

• Ensures patient and referring physician are informed in writing of transplant listing, denial, or postponement. Informs and educates patient/family/caregiver at time of listing waitlist process, Transplant Process, Risk/benefits, including utilization of expanded donors, high-risk donors, if applicable. Ensures antibody screen is obtained regularly per transplant center protocol. Maintains routine health maintenance and surveillance for malignancy during the waiting period. Identifies the need for candidate re-evaluation and initiates when appropriate.

• Participates in transplant event process according to transplant center protocol, as applicable. Contributes to meeting department and organ program targets for process and patient satisfaction measures.

• Identifies appropriate candidate upon referral and ascertains requirements for evaluation, including possible co-morbidities, absolute and relative contraindications to transplantation, communicating all findings with transplant team. Provides and maintains comprehensive documentation of evaluation process. Provides data to OPTN/UNOS/NMDP/CIBMTR/FACT for listing statistics, i.e., Candidate Registration Form/CIBMTR forms.

• Maintains and updates candidate listing status per OPTN/UNOS/NMDP regulations. Provides and maintains comprehensive documentation of candidate progress while on waitlist, and donor/recipient transplant information.

• Maintains and submits accurate data for hospital-based statistics and regulatory agencies, if applicable, such as OPTN/UNOS/CMS/NMDP/CIBMTR/FACT, and Medicaid to ensure compliance with all government reporting requirements, and proper quality outcomes monitoring. Contributes to meeting department and organ program targets for quality, compliance, and safety.

• Validates patient's insurance authorization for applicable diagnostic testing, ensuring documentation of applicable clinical activities for department charge capture and proper department financial management.

• Utilizes time between heavy workloads efficiently and helps other team members. Contributes to meeting department and organ program financial measures.

• Offers innovative solutions through participation in performance improvement projects. Contributes to department initiatives for quality and process improvement.

• Participates in transplant-specific continuous learning and growth. Applies evidence-based practice to daily work, i.e., attending CMPI, reviewing the professional literature and attending professional meetings and sharing with colleagues. Identifies own learning needs and actively seeks educational opportunities, both formal and informal, to meet those needs. Ensures own career discussions occur with appropriate management. Completes and updates the My Development Plan on an on-going basis.

• Bachelor's degree or higher from an accredited School of Nursing

• Four years nursing experience or three years' Oncology/BMT-specific experience for area of specialty

• Previous transplant acute care and/or ICU experience preferred

Keywords:

pre-transplant coordination, lung transplant, registered nurse, patient care coordination, transplant evaluation, interprofessional team, clinical assessment, patient education, transplant regulations compliance, care coordination