Things to Consider When Choosing a Transplant Center
Hospitals that have experience performing bone marrow or cord blood transplants have special departments called transplant centers. If you are choosing a transplant center for your treatment, it is important to know what to look for and what questions to ask as you make your decision. Keep in mind that:
- Not all hospitals perform transplants using unrelated donors or cord blood units.
- You may have to travel to receive a transplant.
- Some transplant centers specialize in certain kinds of patients or diseases.
- Your doctor might recommend a specific transplant center.
- Your insurance company might have rules about which transplant centers are covered in your insurance plan.
What to look for
There are many factors to consider when choosing a transplant center. Some patients look at a center's transplant experience with certain diseases or ages of patients. Other patients choose a transplant center close to their family and friends.
Some things you can find out about transplant centers are:
- What experience does this transplant center have?
- What do the transplant center survival statistics mean?
- How does the number of transplants done for your disease at this center compare to other centers?
- What is the patient and donor matching level required at this center?
- What are some of the pre-transplant costs at this center?
Questions to askThe transplant process and recovery take a long time. It is important to feel comfortable in your surroundings and have a good relationship with your transplant team. If you and your doctor have narrowed your selection to a few transplant centers, it might be helpful to contact each one:
Finally, when making your choice, it is important to work with your doctor and insurance company to find the center that is best for you.
U.S. NMDP transplant center listingsYou can find information to answer many of your questions in the individual U.S. NMDP transplant center listings.
The transplant centers listed on this Web site perform transplants using unrelated adult donors or cord blood units from the NMDP Registry. You can learn more about these transplant centers as well as other centers that do transplants using cells from a related donor or cells collected from the patient (autologous transplants) in the BMT InfoNet Transplant Center Directory: http://www.bmtinfonet.org/centers. BMT InfoNet (Blood & Marrow Transplant Information Network) is a nonprofit organization that provides information and emotional support to transplant patients and their families.
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