Introduction: Current national guidelines recommend all patient in Emergency Departments that undergo end of life care, regardless of intubation status, be referred to DonateLife for consideration of their potential to be organ or tissue donors. This significantly expands the pool of potential eye and tissue donors referred. 

Objectives: This presentation describes the design and early results and challenges of implementing an electronic automated referral utilising a modification of the electronic medical record, at a high-volume organ donation hospital.

Method: Automated notifications for Emergency commenced mid 2022. Real-time alert notifications were sent via SMS and email to donation specialist nursing coordinators when patients in Emergency were assigned Goals of Care D, referred to a palliative care team, had a bed booked under palliative care, or died within the emergency department.

Results: Since implementation, there have been an average of 4.88 automated death notifications per month (n=40). Median age at death was 73yrs (47% <71yrs, 60% <81yrs), with 70% of deceased patients male. Fifty percent of death occurs within DSNC hours.  By contrast there were an average of 1.2 automated palliation triggers per day, who were older 79yrs. During FEB 2023 all patients who died in emergency (n=4) underwent donation suitability screening, including one who proceeded to eye and tissue donation.

Conclusion: The combination of telephone and automated notification systems for patients undergoing end-of-life care in Emergency has assisted local donation specialists in implementing the national best practice guidelines. Expansion into the broader hospital is being explored.