RESUMO
Introduction: In 2016, the International Society of Nephrology - The Transplantation Society (ISN-TTS) has granted the Sister Transplant Center (STC) to Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) as an emerging center with the University of Barcelona (UB) as the supporting center. As part of capability building, partnership with Donation and Transplantation Institute (DTI) was integrated in the partnership. This has led in doing five (5) Intermediate Transplant Procurement Management courses of health care professionals from SPMC which provided access to strengthen the deceased organ donation activity thru education and training. There is a substantial increase in the number of cadaveric donor transplantation due to changes in the implementation of principles in transplant coordination and organ procurement management (Karatzas 2007). Education of health professionals will improve referral rates for potential donors (ODISSeA 2021). During COVID-19 pandemic, SPMC as end hospital referral facility has stop all donation and transplantation activity. In a report by Nimmo et al., COVID pandemic has shown to be an important limiting factor in the hospital's transplant program. Resumption of training was done and capability building was enhanced by the supporting center. After 6 years of partnership as STC, the impact of training and education in the organ donation activity within the framework of an ISN-TTS and SPMC partnership was then analyzed. Method(s): The hospital database on the organ donation activity and training records were used to analyze the information from 2016 to 2022. The periods were divided as Pre STC partnership in 2016 and the period after the STC implementation from 2017 to 2019. The period from 2020 - 2022 was divided into peri pandemic and pandemic recovery period. An observational descriptive study method was utilized for analysis. Result(s): The results have shown that in 2016 (pre-partnership) there were only 4 donor referrals per year with the partnership's implementation, the number of referrals significantly increased to 54, with a 151.85% increase in 2018 and 474.39% in 2019. The direct impact of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 decreased the number of referrals by 306.3% arriving finally to 7 referrals in 2021. The deceased donation program needed to be reactivated during 2022. Resumption of training for professionals on deceased donation process and management, and monthly evaluation of referred donors from experts from DTI helped achieve 657% increase in number of referrals. Conclusion(s): Implementing the ISN-TTS-STC partnership program of SPMC, UB and DTI has successfully increased the hospital organ donation and transplantation activity. During Covid-19, there is a decrease of activity in organ donation thus also has a direct relationship to the decrease in the number of referrals. Further, resumption of training program in organ donation after the pandemic has increased the program's activity. As a conclusion, capacity building has shown to have a direct impact in the organ donation activity. No conflict of interestCopyright © 2023