Obtaining cornea donation consent by telephone

Background. Cornea donation process comes up against difficulties in obtaining families' consent. A face-to-face interview is often not possible for logistical reasons. We carried out a prospective study of the effectiveness of telephone contact in obtaining donation consent. Methods. Consent was obtained by a single, nonmedical, hospital coordinator. If a face-to-face interview was not possible, a telephone interview was conducted using a standardized procedure. Results. Over a 21-month period, 334 families were contacted, either in a face-to-face interview (142, 42.5%) or by telephone (192, 57.5%). Donation consent was obtained in 66.5% of cases, 106 times by telephone and 116 times in face-to-face interview. The acceptance rate was 55.2% by telephone and 81.6% face to face (P<0.001). In total, 47.7% of the cornea recovery consents were obtained after telephone interview. Conclusions. Telephone interview is an effective method for obtaining consent to cornea donation. Although the acceptance rate using this method is lower than by face-to-face interview, using the telephone should not be overlooked as this enabled procurement of nearly half the corneas in our hospital.