Organ Donation Medals of Honor

Salt Lake City — The U.S Department of Health and Human Services has awarded the first ever Organ Donation Medals of Honor to hospitals around the nation for achieving organ donation rates of 75 percent or higher in a 12-month period. Two Intermountain Health Care hospitals qualified for this medal: LDS Hospital and Primary Children's Medical Center.

"You are serving our community in an admirable way. Thank you for all that you're doing to meet this critical need," Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman told hospital representatives at a recent State Capitol ceremony recognizing the achievement.

More than 540 hospitals across the nation qualify for this award, but only 30 percent received the award. Last year LDS Hospital and Intermountain Donor Services (IDS) were also honored by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) for their success in achieving an organ donation rate of nearly 80 percent compared to the national average of just 43 percent. More than 83,000 people in the nation are currently waiting for an organ transplant. In 2002, only 6,617 (about 46 percent) of an estimated 14,000 potential donors donated organs. As a result, an average of 17 people on the transplantation waiting list die each day.

What is LDS Hospital doing to achieve continued success? LDS Hospital and IDS are participating in the Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative Project, a new national initiative launched to increase access to transplantable organs in the nation's largest hospitals.

The purpose of this initiative: to use 'breakthrough' best practice guidelines to achieve organ donation rates of 75 percent or higher. Through the initiative HHS hopes to increase donations nationally by 1,900 donors each year and to increase the number of transplants by 6,000 annually.

"Achieving this goal in the nation's 200 largest transplant hospitals could save or enhance thousands of lives each year," said Dr. William Hamilton, medical director of LDS Hospital and IHC's Urban Central Region.

LDS Hospital implemented best practice guidelines in its shock/trauma/respiratory intensive care unit. This unit treats critically injured or ill patients who are often eligible to donate organs. In 2002, about 65 percent of the patients in the unit who were eligible to donate transplantable organs actually did. Today, the number of eligible patients who donate is close to 80 percent.

"We've implemented a number of small process improvements that have led to a significant increase in the number of organs available for donation," says Lorie Mitchell, RN, manager of the shock/trauma/ respiratory ICU at LDS Hospital.

"This is a great achievement that everyone in the state should be very proud of," says LDS Hospital administrator Mikelle Moore.

LDS Hospital is one of the leading trauma centers in the U.S.