Growing Registry Lends Hope to Patients on Waiting List
Michigan hospitals participating in the Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA) Keystone: Gift of Life collaborative more than tripled the number of hospital-generated registrations, adding 11,800 people to the Michigan Organ Donor Registry last year, up from 3,800 registrations in 2009. Those registration results by hospitals were among the best in the nation.
The success was achieved through the efforts of Michigan hospitals, Gift of Life Michigan, the MHA Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality and the Michigan Eye-Bank.
In total, more than 319,000 people joined the registry in 2010, a 33 percent increase from 2009. More than 2 million Michigan citizens have now documented their wish to someday help others through organ, tissue and eye donation. The waiting list of patients needing life-saving transplants stands at 3,000 statewide.
“We are thrilled so many Michigan citizens are recognizing the life-saving action they take when they join the organ donor registry, and we are more than thrilled with the significant contributions of the state’s hospitals through MHA Keystone: Gift of Life,” said Gift of Life Michigan CEO Richard Pietroski.
“We are honored that Michigan hospitals are once again recognized for their efforts to save and improve lives by increasing the number of eligible organ donors,” said MHA President Spencer Johnson. “We are not only grateful for the efforts of our state’s hospitals and Gift of Life Michigan, but also to the thousands of people who have committed to helping save someone else’s life.”
As part of Donor Drive 2010, participating hospitals had a goal of adding two names for every employee. Hospitals were encouraged to recruit employees, family members, neighbors, friends and colleagues.
Oakwood Hospital & Medical Center, Dearborn, recorded 797 registrations, the most of any Michigan hospital. Other hospitals that excelled: U of M Medical Center in Ann Arbor signed up 743 new donors; Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit added 723; Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak registered 649 and Portage Health in the Upper Peninsula recruited 517 people to the registry.
Signing the back of your driver’s license is no longer the way to become a donor in Michigan. Instead, you must join the Michigan Organ Donor Registry to receive a red heart emblem for the front of your license. To do so, go to www.giftoflifemichigan.org, call 800.482.4881 or visit any Secretary of State branch office.
Gift of Life Michigan is the state’s only federally designated organ and tissue recovery organization. The non-profit, based in Ann Arbor, works with hospitals statewide as the intermediary between donors, physicians and hospital staff.
Based in Lansing, the MHA represents all of Michigan’s community hospitals and successfully advocates on behalf of hospitals and the patients they serve. The MHA addresses key issues in the legislative and regulatory arenas to advance initiatives that protect quality, cost-effective and accessible care. To learn more, visit www.mha.org.
The MHA Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality, based in Lansing, Mich., brings patient safety experts and hospitals together to work in collaborative programs to improve patient safety and health care quality and to reduce medical errors. For more information, visit www.mhakeystonecenter.org.
The Michigan Eye-Bank is a charitable, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the restoration of sight. It recovers, evaluates and distributes human eye tissue for transplantation. It also supports research into the causes and cures of blinding eye conditions, promotes donation awareness through public and professional education, and provides humanitarian aid to people in need of corneal transplantation throughout the world. For more information, visit the Michigan Eye-Bank online at www.michiganeyebank.org or call (800) 247-7250.
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