ANN ARBOR, MI - The University of Michigan Health System Transplant Center, in collaboration with Gift of Life Michigan, raised its organ donation rate to an unprecedented 92 percent in 2004, making it the leading transplant center for donation in Michigan and one of the best in the country.

Richard Chenault, Dennis Wagner (HRSA Collaborative Leader) and Mark Gravel receive Medals of Honor from HHS.

This joint effort, which resulted in 68 organs for transplantation at U-M hospitals in 2004 – 38 kidneys, 18 livers, three hearts, three lungs, five pancreases and one intestine – was recently honored with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' distinguished Medal of Honor for achieving and exceeding a life-saving organ donation rate of 75 percent or greater for a sustained 12-month period.

The U-M Transplant Center was one of 11 hospitals in Michigan, and one of 184 hospitals nationwide, to receive the HHS Medal of Honor.

Much of the U-M Transplant Center's success is credited to the work of Jeffrey Punch, M.D., F.A.C.S., director of the UMHS Transplantation Division; Mark Gravel, director of UMHS Donation Initiatives; and Richard Chenault, transplant/donation specialist – all of whom received individual HHS Medals of Honor for their significant efforts to increase organ donation at U-M.

Those efforts include the development of the Organ Initiatives program at UMHS, which strives to shrink the gap between patients on organ wait lists and organs available for transplantation. The program works to increase U-M Health System staff education, and applies a more organized approach to talking with patients' families about the potential for organ donation, says Punch.

“I have to give the Department of Health and Human Services credit,” notes Punch. “They have truly made organ donation awareness a priority, and now other groups like the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations have joined in this initiative. It is nice to see a regulatory body working together with physicians and hospital staff at the grass-roots level to achieve a common goal.”

The Medal of Honor is part of the HHS Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative. The Collaborative, which the U-M Transplant Center and Gift of Life Michigan joined in 2003, is designed to combat the growing disparity between the supply and demand of organs for transplantation in the United States by pairing the hospitals with the highest number of eligible/potential donors with their local organ procurement organization. Its goal is to raise the donation rate at these institutions to 75 percent.

Thanks to the Collaborative's efforts, organ donation increased by 10.8 percent in 2004 and generated nearly 1,400 additional life-saving transplants in the country. Currently, the national average donation rate is 55 percent.

About the U-M Transplant Center

• U-M performed its first transplant in 1964, making it one of the oldest and most experienced transplant center in the country
  
• In its first 40 years, the U-M Transplant Center performed:
• 575 heart transplants
• 310 lung transplants
• 13 heart/lung transplants
• 1 heart/kidney transplant
• 1,244 liver transplants
• 27 liver/kidney transplants
• 3,511 kidney transplants
• 159 kidney/pancreas transplants
• 72 pancreas transplants
  
• In 2004, the center was saluted by federal health officials for having one of the highest donor-conversion rates in the country: 91 percent of eligible registered organ donors who die at U-M hospitals donated their organs.
  
• More information about the U-M Transplant Center , and upcoming fundraising events, are online at www.michigantransplant.org.

To learn more about the HHS Organ Donation Breakthrough, visit www.organdonor.gov.

Related Links
U-M celebrates 40 years of organ transplants http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2004/transplantreunion.htm

U-M Transplant Center one of the best in nation for driving organ donation
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2004/transplant.htm

Written by Krista Hopson

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