Recently as part of our Best Practices Interview Series, we had the privilege of interviewing Patti Niles, the CEO of Southwest Transplant Alliance, an organ procurement organization (OPO) based in Dallas, Texas. Patti and her team operate one of the largest OPOs in the United States and serve an enormous service area which includes 10.5 million residents encompassing much of central and western Texas. Patti is also one of the CEOs in the industry who has risen up as donation and transplantation have transitioned from being a rare opportunity to a major life-saving activity, and this has provided her with a tremendous amount of perspective on what it takes to have an effective OPO.
Here are a few key takeaways from this interview:
For Patti, becoming a part of the OPO world required growing familiar with the process beyond transplantation. Patti first entered into the world of donation and transplantation over 30 years ago, but her interest in the field took time to grow. While working in Dayton, Ohio in the intensive care unit, she explains, she was fascinated by the transplantation process and decided to submit a resume to become a transplant coordinator. “Before long, I was sitting in front of this guy talking about a procurement transplant coordinator job, and brain dead people, and I had no idea what he was talking about, nor was I interested. I wanted to get out of there as quick as I could.”
But the medical director in the unit encouraged Patti to job shadow the procurement coordinator role as she continued to work as a bedside nurse. Eventually, coming up close and personal with the particulars of the donation process led Patti to change her focus.
“One weekend, we had a disaster case where it was a whiteout in Ohio and there was a 20-car pile-up,” she explains. “I got as a nurse one of the patients, who was the son, and over the way was the mother, who was brain dead. That piqued my curiosity, and I decided that was what I wanted to do.”
Improving relationships with transplant centers has been a key area of growth for STA. Patti explains that the desire to have a stronger relationships with transplant partners has led to bringing on a dedicated transplant liaison who’s armed with data.
“For the transplant centers, we’ve been fortunate to have hired our own liaison that’s been able to use that organ utilization tool to give feedback to the transplant centers, which has really driven acceptance behaviors,” she says. This has helped to improve acceptance for organs, particularly with kidneys, an area where the OPO has struggled in the past.
When faced with a challenge such as COVID-19, being able to pivot has been just as important for Patti and her team as following through on existing plans. “I wish my crystal ball were clearer and I had a clear path,” she says. “We always operate on a Plan B, so when COVID hit, we were able to pivot quickly. I think having our own recovery center will be huge for us.”
The newly-opened center will enable teams to travel less during the pandemic and increase the efficiency of the donation and transplant process. But, she adds, “We have a big state to cover.”
Some of the other challenges have involved interacting with donor families and donor hospitals. “We’ve had to fine-tune a lot of our skills,” she says. “Even in hospital development, how can you be creative when you can’t be there?” That reality has led the team at STA to look for new avenues to interact with those on the donation side of the process and to shake up existing protocols.
Patti’s advice to aspiring CEOs is to, “be bold.” “And be prepared to face the barriers in donation,” she adds. “I think as a leader, there are so many things to focus on at the same time, but we’re always trying to make sure we’re doing the right thing at the right times.”
We would like to than Patti Niles for participating in our interview series and for being willing to share her wisdom and insight with us. If you’d like to learn more about her organization, please visit https://www.organ.org.
Also, don’t miss our other interviews from this series (which we’ll be posting weekly until the end of this year) and feel free to review our other Best Practices videos!