Gift of Hope earns top award for organ donation efforts

The Rock River Times
ITASCA, Ill. â€" The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has recognized Gift of Hope as one of just eight “high-performing” organ procurement organizations (OPOs) in the nation that have met or exceeded national best practice benchmarks for helping to increase the availability of transplantable organs. As a result, Gift of Hope received a “Gold Medal of Honor “ award from HHS during a special ceremony Oct. 4.

Since 2003, Gift of Hope and the nation’s other 57 OPOs have been working with hospitals and transplant centers to achieve the following three critical goals identified as key factors in driving the success of organ transplantation:

• Increase success rates in converting eligible donors into actual donors;

• Increase the number of organs transplanted from each donor; and

• Increase the number of donations after cardiac death as a percentage of all donors.

“Being recognized by HHS as a top-performing OPO indicates that Gift of Hope, in collaboration with our hospital and transplant center partners, is achieving these goals and providing lifesaving organs for the people we serve,” said Jerry Anderson, president/CEO of Gift of Hope.

OPOs’ success at converting eligible donors to actual donations is the principal measure for how effectively they are collaborating with their partnering hospitals, Anderson added.

“The current benchmark for optimum performance is a 75 percent conversion rate,” he said. “Through effective teamwork between Gift of Hope and our partnering hospitals, we exceeded that standard with a conversion rate of 80 percent over the last two years.”

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