The Alliance completed its 2022 – 2025 strategic plan that will continue to guide its vision to be a catalyst that ignites bold advancements in organ donation, transplantation and patient survival through collaboration and engaged learning. The plan built upon the framework established in 2021 to emphasize community collaboration, innovation sharing, enhanced learning experiences and sustainable infrastructure. The planning process was supported by The Joint Commission.
Eleven Alliance board members served on the strategic planning committee, which was led by Board Chair Dr. Ana Hands, vice president of transplant services for Oschner Multi-Organ Transplant Institute. “In this age of disruption, we feel it is essential to review the current scope of work conducted by The Alliance and evaluate plans to optimize the investments made, based on feedback from the community of practice,” says Hands. “And, we deeply value the consultative involvement of one of our key partners, The Joint Commission, to guide the planning process.”
For the second year in a row, Yerachmiel “Rocky” Ephraim, a Lean Six Sigma expert at The Joint Commission, was loaned to lead the work of the Strategic Planning Committee. At The Joint Commission, he works closely with senior leadership and staff on a variety of projects.
“It is good to see the implementation and results of critical programs discussed in 2021, such as the [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] program, new virtual foundational perspectives of organ donation seminars and the volunteer recognition strategy,” says Ephraim. “Most importantly, these programs are measured thoughtfully to continue evaluating the impact and opportunities for improvement.”
“The Joint Commission values the important work of The Alliance in the field of organ donation and transplantation,” says Thomas Strukl, Alliance board member and Laboratory Project Director, Standards and Survey Methods, Division of Healthcare Quality Evaluation for The Joint Commission. “We are facing a great period of change in many aspects of transplantation and healthcare in general and The Alliance will help organizations across the nation navigate this change, which will affect thousands of donors and transplant patients.”
Many new initiatives emerged from the community of practice for the strategic planning committee to consider launching in the next five years. Ephraim introduced the implementation of the priority payoff matrix, a framework for leadership to evaluate both the impact each initiative may have and the level of difficulty/resources to execute each initiative so that the committee could prioritize the long list of valuable opportunities.
Several new learning programs, improved connections for professionals across the continuum, and continued investment in an effective learning portfolio will be introduced in the 18 months. A few of the new programs and tactics include:
- National Critical Issues “One-Day” Events, based on specific key topics areas.
- a National Pediatric Donation and Transplantation Summit in 2023
- Development of On-Demand Learning Pathways for a wide variety of topics
- Pioneers of Possible – highlights of the great innovators in donation and transplantation
- a Redesign of the OnboardingU Foundational Perspectives of Transplantation Program
- Introduction of text messaging as a new communications tool, for those in the community who choose texting as a preferred method.
“Our board brings the necessary leadership to evaluate the most poignant mechanisms to meet the changing needs of our community of practice,” says Karri Hobson-Pape. “We appreciate their commitment to this process each year and the staff truly looks forward to implementing new programs in the plan.”
Work on the planning process began in March 2021 and included discussing current trends in the practice and results from the annual community survey. Final priorities were determined in June 2022.
The Alliance Strategic Planning Committee includes:
- Dr. Ana Hands, Alliance Board Chair and Vice President, Transplant Services, Ochsner Health
- Jan Finn, Alliance Board Chair-Elect and President & Chief Executive Officer, Midwest Transplant Network
- Nancy Foster, Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety Policy, American Hospital Association
- Dr. David Klassen, Chief Medical Officer, United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)
- Dr. John Magee, Jeremiah & Claire Turcotte Professor of Transplant Surgery, University of Michigan
- Kevin Myer, Board Immediate Past Chair and President & Chief Executive Office, LifeGift
- Paul Myoung, Senior Administrative Director, Massachusetts General Hospital
- Dr. Tom Nakagawa, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville
- Jennifer Prinz, President and CEO, Donor Alliance
- Dr. Jon Snyder, Board Treasurer and Director of Transplant Epidemiology, Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute
- Susan Stuart, President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE)
