What is

ODEQUS?

The Organ Donation European Quality System Project (ODEQUS) is a software which aims to identify, create and establish a series of quality procedures in organ donation. The project ultimately attempts to increase the number and quality of organs obtained for transplantation.

Coordinated by the University of Barcelona alongside 14 participating national organizations and hospitals from 11 European Countries, ODEQUS was developed from October 2010 to December 2013. Since its launch in 2013, ODEQUS has identified over 130 Quality Criteria and 30 Quality Indicators, which have been tested in 12 hospitals in Europe through internal and external evaluations according to the website. Today, it is proven that these Quality Indicators are effective measures used to determine hospital performance quality as it pertains to organ donation.

ODEQUS

OBJECTIVES

The main objective of the ODEQUS Project is to define a methodology to assess the performance of organ procurement at a hospital level.

ODEQUS aims to fulfill the following objectives:

  • Identify and develop Quality Criteria (QC) in the three different types of organ donation: after brain death (DBD), after cardiac arrest (DCD) and living donation (LD), focused mainly on the hospital level.
  • Create Quality Indicators (QI) to assess organizational structures, clinical procedures and outcomes.
  • Develop auditing tools to evaluate the implementation of best practices described in the QC and used by the QI.
  • Train healthcare professionals on how to use the QI and evaluation tools.
THE PROJECT'S

METHODOLOGY

ODEQUS follows the standards of best practice as identified by:

  • Expert opinions
  • Literature reviews and research for evidence, whenever possible.
  • Surveys determining the current use of QI at the hospital level, according to respondents from 11 European countries.

To assess the organizational structures of ODEQUS, the following fields are taken into consideration:

  • Legal framework
  • Accreditation and certification
  • Organization
  • Human and material resources
  • Education and research

The main fields considered to assess the organizational structures have been legal framework, accreditation and certification, organization, human and material resources, education and research.