Why Choose an NKR Center for a Kidney Transplant?
If you are in need of a kidney transplant, one of your first steps will be choosing a transplant center.
There are more than 250 transplant centers in the United States, and choosing the right one depends on several factors. Your primary care doctor or nephrologist may have already referred you to a specific center, or you may have chosen one based on its proximity to your home or its participation in your insurance network.
It’s important to know that you have the right to switch centers if you choose. You might do this for several reasons, including the reputation or level of experience the center has with kidney transplants, its participation in special programs for kidney patients, or the expertise of its surgeons and transplant team.
To see the transplant records of all U.S. centers, visit https://www.kidneytransplantcenters.org and select the Recipients tab. You’ll be able to see a wide range of information on each center, including how many living donor kidney transplants it completed in the past year, the programs it participates in, and whether it is a National Kidney Registry (NKR) Member Center.
Choosing a center that performs a lot of living donor transplants has two main benefits. First, the more living transplants a center has performed, the more experience it has, which is a benefit with any type of surgery or medical procedure.
Second, the more living donor transplants a center performs, the likelier they are to have an “extra” donor at the end of a donation chain, which would enable them to match a recipient without a donor.
How Are NKR Transplant Centers Different?
The NKR works with a network of transplant centers that have agreed to an extensive list of guidelines and commitments to provide the highest level of care, protection, and support to living donors and transplant recipients. NKR Member Centers must adhere to strict center requirements and guidelines to maintain membership in good standing. As of 2024, there are 102 NKR Member Centers spanning 35 states and the District of Columbia.
In addition to offering the highest levels of care, NKR Member Centers have the opportunity to participate in a variety of living donation programs, including the Voucher Program, remote donation, and Donor Shield.
NKR Member Centers also offer additional advantages for kidney patients, especially those who want a living donor kidney transplant but don’t have a donor willing to donate on their behalf. The microsite program—a comprehensive program to help kidney patients find a living kidney donor, including a free personalized website and free coaching—is offered exclusively by NKR Member Centers. Visit https://www.findakidney.org to learn more about the microsite program or to see a map of microsite participant centers.
If you decide to choose or switch to an NKR Center, you don’t need to contact the center directly. All you have to do is register online with the NKR. Once you have registered and selected a center, someone from the center should reach out to you with next steps. If you have not heard from the center within a few days, you can contact the NKR and someone from the NKR will contact the center.