Center variation in the use of nonstandardized model for end‐stage liver disease exception points
David S. Goldberg, George Makar, Therese Bittermann, Benjamin French – 27 August 2013 – The Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score is an imperfect prognosticator of waitlist dropout, so transplant centers may apply for exception points to increase a waitlist candidate's priority on the waitlist. Exception applications are categorized as recognized exceptional diagnoses (REDs; eg, hepatocellular carcinoma) and non‐REDs (eg, cholangitis). Although prior work has demonstrated regional variation in the use of exceptions, no work has examined the between‐center variability.