For Transplant Recipient Candidates

When you choose UPMC for your organ transplant care, our team is with you every step of the way — from referral and evaluation to recovery and follow-up care.

The organ transplant process typically has five stages:

1. Referral and Medical Record Review

You or your doctor contacts the transplant program and sends medical records for initial review.

To start the transplant process, you need to select the hospital where you would like to receive your transplant and get a physician referral or refer yourself. Kidney transplantation is performed at UPMC Montefiore in Pittsburgh, Pa., UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pa., and UPMC Harrisburg in Harrisburg, Pa. All other organ transplant surgeries are performed at UPMC Montefiore. UPMC accepts self-referrals and physician referrals.

After you are referred to our program, our transplant team will:

• Assign a transplant coordinator to be your main point of contact.
• Check your insurance benefits. A credit analyst will contact you to discuss your coverage and the costs of transplant surgery.
• Decide if you're a good candidate for a transplant evaluation.
• Look at your medical records, including your results from previous colonoscopies, mammograms, Pap smears, dental exams, and treatment history related to your disease.

Multiple listing for an organ transplant

Depending on the type of transplant you’re having, you may be able to register at two or more transplant hospitals. Known as multi-listing, this enables you to be included in larger and different pools for deceased-donor organs. As a result, being listed at multiple hospitals may increase your chances of receiving an offer of a compatible organ and/or shorten your wait time.

UPMC accepts patients who are multi-listed. If you are interested in multi-listing, you should discuss this option with your transplant team.

Contact UPMC About Transplant Referral

2. Pre-Transplant Evaluation

You will have extensive testing and consultations to decide if a transplant is your best treatment option. If you have identified potential living donors, they will also undergo testing to confirm they are compatible with you.

This stage of the process begins after insurance has approved the costs of your pre-transplant evaluation. You'll work with your transplant coordinator to schedule a number of outpatient tests and consultations that will help your care team decide if a transplant is right for you.

These tests and consultations take about a week to complete. Depending on how close your evaluation location is to your home, you may wish to stay near the hospital during your evaluation. Family House offers affordable housing for people coming to Pittsburgh for transplant treatment. Family House is not a medical facility.

Your evaluation will include:

• A detailed review of your medical and surgical history.
• A financial readiness assessment to help you understand the costs of a transplant, what your health insurance will cover, your portion of the costs, and the types of financial assistance that may be available.
• A physical exam to assess your overall health.
• A psychosocial assessment, to make sure you have a support system in place and are mentally and emotionally prepared to receive a transplant.
• Compatibility testing to improve the chances of a successful match and reduce your risk of post-transplant complications.
• Presurgical testing to ensure you are healthy enough to have surgery, which may include blood tests, cardiac testing, dental exams, cancer screenings, and imaging tests.

You must bring a care partner to all your visits at UPMC. The exams and tests are physically demanding. It can be hard for someone with a serious health condition to get from one appointment, test, or location without help.

3. Waiting For Your Organ

You will be placed on the national transplant waiting list or search for a living donor. If you have a living donor, you will not need to wait for a deceased-donor organ and will move forward with scheduling your surgery.

If you are a good fit for transplant, we'll work with your insurance plan to approve the transplant surgery. After your transplant is approved by your insurance, we'll place you on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) national transplant waiting list.

UNOS decides the criteria for organ allocation and ensures that all transplant hospitals in the U.S. meet their requirements. Wait times for deceased-donor organs vary.

While on the national transplant waiting list, you must:

• Be able to get to UPMC quickly, within as little as four hours. This will ensure that you can get to the hospital in time when a donor organ becomes available. Family House offers affordable housing for people coming to Pittsburgh for transplant treatment. It is not a medical facility.
• Be accessible by phone 24 hours a day.
• Check in with your transplant coordinator at a minimum of every two weeks to update us on your medical status.
• Have regular tests to reassess your readiness for a transplant.
• Meet with the transplant surgical team every six months.

Living-donor transplants

If you are having a liver or kidney transplant, you may wish to begin your search for a living donor. When you find a living donor, our team will evaluate your donor to determine whether they can safely donate their organ to you.

4. Transplant Surgery

Undergoing your procedure.

When a donor organ is ready, your transplant coordinator will call you to come to the hospital for your transplant. You must get to the hospital right away.

If you have a living donor, your transplant surgery can be scheduled at a time that is convenient for you and your donor.

When you arrive at the hospital, our team will prepare you for surgery. The amount of time your transplant will take depends on the type of transplant you’re having, the complexity of your case, and whether you need other procedures.

After your surgery, you will:

• Spend a few days in the Transplant Intensive Care Unit (TICU) before being transferred to a regular hospital room. You can expect to spend a few weeks in the hospital, depending on the type of transplant you had.
• Start taking antirejection medications, which suppress your immune system so your body will accept your new organ. You will take these medications for the rest of your life.
• Learn how to care for yourself and your new organ before being discharged from the hospital.

5. Post-Transplant Care

Includes recovery and making follow-up appointments.

After you are discharged from the hospital, you may need to stay close to UPMC for several weeks to receive follow-up care. If your surgery was in Pittsburgh and you don't live nearby, you and your care partner can arrange for a room at Family House until you can go home.

Your care team will let you know when to schedule follow-up appointments and when you can safely return home.

The team will also educate you and your care partner about home care instructions, such as:

• Activity and travel restrictions.
• Blood test schedule.
• Frequency of follow-up care.
• Medicine schedule.

You'll need a care partner with you 24 hours a day for the first few weeks or months post-transplant.

Our team at UPMC will take care of you for at least the first two years following transplantation, and ideally for life. In some special circumstances, you may be able to find a local transplant center that can help with your care post-transplant.