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Newark, NJ—Newark Beth Israel Medical Center will be awarded the Medal of Honor for Organ Donation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for achieving one of the highest donation rates in New Jersey.
The Medal of Honor is presented to hospitals that achieve a 75 percent “conversion” rate of eligible organ donors to actual donors for a sustained 12-month period. Conversion rate refers to identifying a potential organ donor at the time of death and working with family to make the organ donation successful.
To date, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center is one of the thirteen New Jersey hospitals receiving the medal for achieving this difficult benchmark. The award will be presented at the Fourth National Learning Congress on Organ Donation and Transplantation held in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 23-24.
The Medal of Honor is given as part of a federal program – the Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative – created to generate significant, measurable increases in organ donation by helping organ procurement organizations (OPOs) and hospitals to quickly identify, learn, adapt, replicate and embrace “breakthrough” practices. The Collaborative challenged the nation’s largest hospitals to increase their donation rate from the previous national average of 50 percent.
NJ Sharing Network, also known as the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network, is a non-profit, federally certified and state-approved organization responsible for recovering organs and tissue for New Jersey residents in need of transplants. "This honor marks an incredible achievement for Newark Beth Israel Medical Center as well as donation professionals and staff in increasing donation rates,” said Joseph Roth, President and CEO of NJ Sharing Network. "It highlights the importance of the Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative which brings together donation professionals and hospital leaders to integrate organ donation into hospital's end-of-life continuum of care."
Date: January 12, 2009
Contact: Beth Salamon
Public Relations
Phone: 973.322.4926
esalamon@barnabashealth.org
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