Improved retransplant outcomes: early evidence of the share35 impact.

BACKGROUND: Share 35 prioritizes offers of deceased donor livers to regional candidates with Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) ≥35 over local candidates with lower MELD scores. Analysis of Share35 has shown that overall 1- or 2-year post-transplant (LTx) outcomes have been unchanged while waitlist mortality has been reduced. However, these studies exclude retransplant (reLTx) recipients. This study aims to investigate the outcomes of liver retransplants in evaluating the impact of the Share35 policy. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of data from the United Network for Organ Sharing database over the period June 2011-June 2015 was performed. RESULTS: A total of 19,748 LTx and 312 reLTx recipients were identified. Of the LTx recipients, 9626 (48.7%) underwent transplant pre-Share 35 and 10,122 (51.3%) post-Share 35. 123 (39.4%) reLTx recipients underwent retransplantation pre-Share 35 and 189 (60.6%) post-Share 35. ReLTx recipients experienced improved 2-year graft survival post-Share 35 compared to pre-Share 35 (67% vs. 21.1%). Patient survival also improved at 2-years for reLTx recipients post-Share 35 compared to pre-Share 35 (69.2% vs. 33.1%). Transplant post-Share 35 was protective for both 2-year graft (HR = 0.669, CI = 0.454-0.985, p = 0.04) and patient (HR = 0.659, CI = 0.44-0.987, p = 0.003) survival. CONCLUSION: Share35 is associated with improved outcomes after retransplantation.

Improvements in Outcomes for Ethnic Minorities During the Share 35 Era Are Not Due to Decreased Rates of Early Graft Loss.

OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to investigate the effects of the Share 35 policy on outcomes in ethnic minorities and recipients who experienced early graft failure. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed donor and recipient data from the United Network for Organ Sharing database before (June 6, 2011 to June 18, 2013) and after (June 18, 2013 to June 30, 2015) implementation of Share 35. Graft and patient survival outcomes were compared. RESULTS: There were significant differences in 1- and 2-year graft and patient survival rates between ethnicities pre-Share 35 (P = .03, P < .001, P = .01, P < .001, respectively). There were no significant differences in 1- and 2-year graft and patient survival between ethnicities post-Share 35 (P = .268, P = .09, P = .343, P = .087, respectively). There were no differences in early graft failure rates pre- and post-Share 35 at 7 days (2.1% vs 2.0; P = .71) and 30 days (4.0% vs 3.8%; P = .47) after transplant, with a decreased early graft failure rate shown at 90 days after transplant (6.8% vs 5.8%; P = .003). When analyzed separately, the low Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (score of < 35) and the high Model for End-Stage Liver Disease recipients (score of ≥ 35) both exhibited reduced early graft failure rates post-Share 35 (6.1% vs 5.3% and 10.8% vs 7.8%, respectively; P < .05). CONCLUIONS: Share 35 was associated with a short-term reduction in ethnic disparities. Most ethnic groups experienced improved survival in the Share 35 era. Share 35 was not associated with an increase in early graft failure and is an efficacious policy with regard to short-term outcomes.

Communication about life-sustaining therapy: insights from the Adaptive Leadership Framework.

OBJECTIVE: Effective provider and caregiver communication is central to quality care during treatment for life-threatening illnesses. The study aim was to analyze communication patterns between providers and a parent of an infant with a life-threatening disease using the Adaptive Leadership Framework, which is an activity that involves mobilizing others to adapt to a difficult situation. METHOD: A secondary analysis was conducted on one case using 23 interviews with providers and mother of an infant diagnosed with Hurler's syndrome. The interviews focused on decision-making challenges in regard to the infant's treatment and were conducted over a 1-year period (pre-transplant, study entry, monthly, after a life-threatening event or substantial change in treatment and at 1-year post enrollment). Content analysis was used to identify and categorize communication patterns using concepts from the Adaptive Leadership Framework. RESULTS: Infant illness events and parent-provider caregiving were chronicled across a 1-year trajectory. Despite the life-threatening nature of Hurler's disease, the parent and providers did not discuss palliative care or end-of-life. The parent sought direction and answers from the providers. The Adaptive Leadership Framework suggested how communication approaches were often mismatched with the needs of the parent. DISCUSSION: The results of the study accentuate the need to improve communication between provider and parents about end-of-life for their child. Adaptive Leadership illuminates how providers can influence a parent's behavior when facing a challenging situation. This study suggests that Adaptive Leadership is a useful framework to guide research about healthcare communication in dealing with challenging issues.

Studying the clinical encounter with the Adaptive Leadership framework.

In this paper we discuss the concept of leadership as a personal capability, not contingent on one's position in a hierarchy. This type of leadership allows us to reframe both the care-giving and organizational roles of nurses and other front-line clinical staff. Little research has been done to explore what leadership means at the point of care, particularly in reference to the relationship between health care practitioners and patients and their family caregivers. The Adaptive Leadership framework, based on complexity science theory, provides a useful lens to explore practitioners' leadership behaviors at the point of care. This framework proposes that there are two broad categories of challenges that patients face: technical and adaptive. Whereas technical challenges are addressed with technical solutions that are delivered by practitioners, adaptive challenges require the patient (or family member) to adjust to a new situation and to do the work of adapting, learning, and behavior change. Adaptive leadership is the work that practitioners do to mobilize and support patients to do the adaptive work. The purpose of this paper is to describe this framework and demonstrate its application to nursing research. We demonstrate the framework's utility with five exemplars of nursing research problems that range from the individual to the system levels. The framework has the potential to guide researchers to ask new questions and to gain new insights into how practitioners interact with patients at the point of care to increase the patient's ability to tackle challenging problems and improve their own health care outcomes. It is a potentially powerful framework for developing and testing a new generation of interventions to address complex issues by harnessing and learning about the adaptive capabilities of patients within their life contexts.