Guideline for coding organ donation after death

This page explains how we code organ donation after death; it has it's own page because may concepts tie together around this and the information should only live in one place.

Background

We usually encode death in Dispo; for patients with dx Brain death who are moved to a different location for Organ donor (organ/tissue donation by the donor) this means we lose either the info about their death or their new location. We needed a special case compromise to ensure this is dealt with consistently.

Instructions for coding these patients

Harvesting at other hospital

What date in the Acquired Diagnosis do you put for this code? Do you use the date that they decide the pt will be an organ donor? Or would you prefer the date the patient goes to the OR (which would be the same as the discharge date? These patients go to a different ward after transplant, right? So we would likely not currently track the CCI for this. Maybe transplants are something we should track if they are at the end of stay. I'll flag this for Allan. I am referring to an organ donor (not a transplant recipient). Most donors go to the morgue after donating their organs in the OR. I am not asking about CCI, just the date for the acquire ICD10 code. I am not sure who wrote the above comment.

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We will not have a separate code for cadaver donations. Instead also code the following as appropriate

• After brain death: Brain death
• Donation after Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) -- where a person who undergoes MAID has made arrangements in advance for organ harvesting after death.

We do not have a special code for:

• Donation after cardiac death (DCD) -- where a donor who is not brain dead is dependent on life support and the family has decided to withdraw care. When the patient's heart stops beating, the organs are then recovered in the operating room.

Some organ donors have a bronchscopy done, but not all do, so don't automatically assume and code it. The only time it is done is if there are considering the lungs. This is according to a Respirologist from STB ICU.

Donation after Cardiac Death (DCD)

• For a braindead donor, or a DCD (donation after cardiac death = almost dead in ICU but decision made to donate by taking patient or OR, removing life support until dead, then harvest organs) it almost always will be an acquired diagnosis. For those the date of that acquired diagnosis should be.... we still need to decide, see: Deceased patients.

How they are treated in linking

Correcting suspect links

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Cross checks that are affected

Check dx implying death must be dispo deceased

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