Measures

Measures submitted for PQM Endorsement (Spring 2026)

• • • Referral Rate: Rate of Hospital Referrals of Potential Organ Donors Made to the Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) from within the OPO’s Donation Service Area in a Calendar Year.
    • Approach: Rate of Referred Patients that are Approached for an Organ Donation in the Organ Procurement Organization’s Donation Service Area in a Calendar Year.
    • Authorization: Authorization Rate for Organ Donation Among Approached, Referred Potential Organ Donors in the Organ Procurement Organization’s Donation Service Area in a Calendar Year.
    • Donation: Rate of the Number of Organ Donors to the Potential Donors in an Organ Procurement Organization’s Donation Service Area in a Calendar Year.

Measure Spotlight: Donation Rate

This one-page reference defines the donation rate measure—the ratio of actual organ donors to the potential donor population within an OPO’s donation service area—and clarifies both what the measure reveals and what it cannot show on its own. It includes the organ donation funnel to illustrate how the potential donor pool narrows due to clinical and situational factors, and guidance on how the measure should be used for quality improvement and general planning.

Criteria for Evaluating Potential and Final Measures

As required by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the process has included the consensus development of criteria for evaluating potential and final measures. As of August 28, 2025, the Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) Stakeholder Group and Technical Expert Panel agreed that potential new OPO performance measures should be:

• • • • Meaningful.
      • Actionable.
      • Feasible to implement.
      • An improvement on current measures.
      • Rigorous.
      • Evidence-based.
      • Replicable.
      • Verifiable.
      • Reflective of the evolving science and medicine of donation.
      • Aligned.
      • Oriented toward optimizing transplant outcomes.
      • Developed inclusively.
      • Assessed for potential to promote unethical behavior.

See the Criteria for Evaluating Potential and Final Measures information sheet for additional information on these measure criteria.

Questions?

Reach out to opomeasurements@econometricainc.com