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Mapping transplant centers…
A center can look close on a map and still be a poor fit for your care, coverage, or support needs. Use this guide to move from a list of possibilities to informed conversations.
Return to the center map ↗
Start with fit, not a ranking
The right center should fit your medical needs and your real life. As the video explains, consider travel, visit frequency, caregiver support, living-donor experience, financial guidance, lodging help, transportation, medications, and education you can revisit at home.
Filter the map by the organ and services you need, then identify two or three realistic programs.
Confirm insurance participation, travel expectations, caregiver rules, and local testing options. Ask how the center educates patients, makes information easy to revisit, and demonstrates that the patient experience is a priority.
Use official SRTR data alongside a center conversation; volume alone is not a quality score.
Bring your medical, emotional, cultural, language, financial, and family priorities to each call.
Choosing a center means considering your chances of reaching transplant as well as your health afterward. Discuss these connected decisions with each transplant team and your kidney doctor.
A longer wait can mean more time on dialysis, worsening health, or death before a transplant becomes available. Ask about your likely wait given your blood type, antibody level, dialysis history, and health—not just a center-wide average. Evaluation delays and periods when you are inactive also matter.
Centers differ in which kidneys they will consider for you. The Kidney Donor Profile Index (KDPI) estimates relative risk of kidney graft failure. A higher KDPI generally means a kidney is expected to function for less time; it is not a prediction of exactly how many years it will last.
Considering a broader range of kidneys may shorten waiting. Restricting offers to lower-KDPI kidneys may prolong it. Ask how the benefit of an earlier transplant compares with continued waiting in your case, including the option of kidneys with KDPI above 85.
Patient survival describes being alive after transplant. Graft survival describes being alive with a functioning transplanted kidney. Neither percentage tells you your remaining lifespan. Review both with the team, including its experience caring for patients with needs like yours.
Ask about rejection, infection, medication effects, and follow-up support. Discuss living donation separately: the route to transplant and expected outcomes may differ.
The new kidney figures are a fixed SRTR snapshot retrieved September 14, 2026. Access shows the percentage receiving a deceased-donor transplant at that program within three years of listing; living-donor recipients are excluded. Access covers all ages. Survival shows adult or pediatric kidney recipients, as labeled, combining donor types. These are different groups and cannot be multiplied to predict an individual's outcome.
Survival estimates are unadjusted; the expected percentages account for patient and donor characteristics. Confidence intervals show uncertainty. Small samples and different patient populations limit comparisons. Missing data does not mean zero or poor performance. Follow each program's SRTR link for current reports and full definitions.
Ask the same core questions at every program. Take notes and record who gave you the information so your comparison stays grounded.
Patients working with transplant centers that use ValaBright will have access to state-of-the-art interactive multimedia educational resources delivered automatically to their phones. This makes it easier to understand each stage of the transplant journey, revisit important information at home, prepare better questions, and stay actively connected with the center.
Calling a transplant program does not place you on the national waiting list. It begins a center-specific process of information gathering, evaluation, and shared decision-making.
Ask how and when the center will notify you of its listing decision. Keep copies of letters, test results, and the names of people you speak with.
The center gathers basic medical and insurance information and explains its referral process.
A multidisciplinary team reviews your medical, surgical, psychosocial, financial, and support needs.
The program decides whether to list you, request more information, defer, or decline.
If listed, you complete ongoing tests, stay reachable, and follow the program’s readiness requirements.
An organ offer begins another review. After transplant, lifelong care and medication follow.
OPTN policy permits registration at more than one transplant hospital. Each program still decides whether to evaluate and list you, and multiple listing does not guarantee a faster transplant.
Living donation can create another transplant option, most commonly for kidney and partial-liver transplantation. The intended recipient and potential donor have different teams, needs, and rights.
Transplant candidates often need to explain a complex, deeply personal journey to relatives, friends, coworkers, and their wider community. Repeating that story one conversation at a time can be exhausting, and people who want to help may not know what the patient needs or how to respond.
A transplant center using ValaBright can work directly with the patient to quickly design and launch a personalized website. The site gives the patient one clear, easy-to-share place to tell their story, explain their transplant needs, provide updates, invite potential living donors to learn more, and raise funds for eligible transplant-related expenses.
With guidance from a trusted transplant center, the website can help the patient communicate more confidently, reach a larger support network, and spend less energy repeatedly managing the same questions.
Learning about donation or starting an evaluation does not obligate you to donate. Your decision should be informed, voluntary, and free from pressure.
Eligible living donors may receive help from the National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC) with certain non-medical expenses, including travel, lost wages, and dependent-care costs. Ask the donor team about eligibility and apply before covered expenses occur.
Explore NLDAC financial assistance ↗A transplant affects more than medical appointments. Plan for the people, time, travel, and money that make safe recovery possible.
Make one shared plan
Ask whether the center is in network and how evaluation, surgery, follow-up, and anti-rejection medicines are covered.
Plan for evaluation visits, the call for transplant, frequent early follow-up, parking, lodging, and meals.
Ask who must accompany you, which tasks they will handle, and how long the center requires their help.
Discuss leave, lost income, childcare, eldercare, pet care, and recovery time before an urgent call arrives.
Ask about network status, prior authorization, travel benefits, transplant pharmacy coverage, deductibles, coinsurance, and any “center of excellence” requirement. Then compare the answers with the center’s financial coordinator.
Use these independent, federally supported resources to understand transplant policy, compare program data, and find patient guidance.
Learn about evaluation, allocation, waiting-list status, multiple listing, and living donation.
Visit patient resources ↗ SRTRReview program-specific data, patient characteristics, transplant rates, and outcomes in context.
Compare programs ↗ OPTN Patient ServicesFor general questions about donation, transplantation, OPTN policy, and the waiting-list process.
Call 1-866-678-6411 →ValaBright does not determine transplant or donor eligibility, waiting-list status, organ allocation, or individual treatment. Programs, services, coverage, and data can change. Confirm current information with the transplant center, your insurer, and qualified healthcare professionals. Historical volume and outcome data cannot predict an individual result.
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