In some countries you need to travel abroad to be able to receive a life-giving transplant. This changes the role and the workflows of transplant organizations and transplant coordinators.
In Luxembourg, for example, medical experts manage organ donations and perform organ harvesting. Since Luxembourg is part of the Eurotransplant network, allocation is performed centrally among member countries. Luxembourg relies not only on allocation but also on transplants to be performed in the transplantation centers in the Eurotransplant countries. The role of transplant coordinators in Luxembourg is to register patients on the waitlists outside the country and coordinate patient transport for transplantation in the center abroad. Many patients undergo successful transplantations, yet there are also those for whom travel for transplantation is not the best option.
In Greece, like in Luxembourg, most patients travel abroad to receive organ transplants. In the absence of transplantation center infrastructure, Greece performs a low number of transplantations in the country. Between 2013 and 2017, a total of 260 Greek patients travelled abroad to hospitals around Europe for solid organ transplants. In the same period, around 696 transplant recipients travelled abroad for post-operative examinations. Greece pays for its citizens’ travel to undergo transplantation abroad, however, at times there are additional costs for families and added complexity in the work of the Hellenic Transplant Organization, Greece’s central organ procurement authority, and in the work of transplant coordinators who have to navigate the inter-European and international transplantation landscape.
Afflo experts understand that patient and case management is complex as it is, however, there are additional complexities introduced when medical professionals have to support patients undergoing transplantation and post-transplant monitoring at the transplant centers abroad. Our transplantation experts have built an efficient patient and case management system with automated workflows and external system integration, as well as an Enterprise Master Patient Index to take data from disparate systems and detect duplicate entries, and Care Conference functionality for secure clinician video chat and messaging. Our end-to-end solution lets programs provide a gift of life to patients both when they need to travel for a transplant and with the help of locally based teams.