Date of Award

Summer 2023

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Health Services and Policy Management

First Advisor

Christina Andrews

Abstract

Background

The Kidney Allocation System (KAS) was created in 2014 to address long wait times for a kidney transplant, inappropriately matched kidneys, and high re-transplantation rates. This research examines the associations of the KAS with the percentage of sensitized patients receiving a kidney transplant, wait time to transplant and the distance between donor and recipient hospitals.

Methods

Data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) was used for this research. The study population included adults over 18 in the United States who received a kidney transplant between December 4, 2009, and December 4, 2018. Patients simultaneously waitlisted for other organs were excluded from this study. Patients listed at multiple centers were merged into one record. Three separate time series analysis models were used to assess the outcomes of interest before and after the KAS policy.

Results

In the first year of the KAS, there was a significant increase in the percentage of sensitized patients that received a kidney transplant by 48.50% (P

Conclusions

The KAS led to significant changes in access to transplants for sensitized patients, reduced the wait time to transplant, and increased the distance between donor and recipient transplant centers.

Rights

© 2023, Shamika Danielle Jones

Available for download on Sunday, August 31, 2025

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