UK HealthCare Recognized Nationally for Promoting Organ, Eye, and Tissue Donation

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 11, 2018) – UK HealthCare was among a select group of hospital systems nationwide recognized for promoting enrollment in state organ donor registries in a national campaign sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The campaign has added more than 443,000 donor enrollments to state registries nationwide.

UK HealthCare conducted awareness and registry campaigns to educate staff, patients, visitors, and community members about the critical need for organ, eye, and tissue donors and, by doing so, increased the number of potential donors on the state’s donor registry. The hospital earned points for each activity implemented between October 2017 and April 2018 and was awarded platinum recognition through the HRSA Workplace Partnership for Life Hospital Campaign.

Of the 1,283 hospitals and transplant centers participating in the campaign, 468 platinum awards were awarded during this phase of the campaign.

“It’s a privilege and a responsibility for us to educate our citizens on the importance of the organ donor registry, which has helped save so many Kentucky lives,” said Dr. Roberto Gedaly, director of the UK Transplant Center. “As the only transplant center serving central and eastern Kentucky, we would not be able to help those in need of transplantation without organ donors and widespread awareness of how organ donation changes lives.”

This campaign is a special effort of HRSA’s Workplace Partnership for Life to mobilize the nation’s hospitals to increase the number of people in the country who are registered organ, eye, and tissue donors and ultimately, the number of organs available for transplant. The campaign unites donation advocates at hospitals with representatives from their local organ procurement organizations, Donate Life America affiliates, and state and regional hospital associations. Working together, the teams leverage their communications resources and outreach efforts to most effectively spread word of the critical need for donors.

UK HealthCare worked with Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA) on the campaign. See the full list of hospital associations and hospitals recognized here.