Brain death diagnoses and evaluation of the number of potential organ donors in Quebec hospitals.

Purpose: Faced with our inability to respond to the growing number of Quebec patients waiting for organ transplants, we sought to determine the number of potential organ donors (OD) in acute care hospitals.

Methods: A retrospective chart review of all acute care, in-hospital deaths in Quebec in the year 2000 was undertaken. Hospital record librarians provided statistics and completed questionnaires on each chart after applying exclusion and inclusion criteria.