The Challenge

Each year, thousands of organ and tissue donations are needed to save lives and maintain quality of life. Donated organs and other tissues include kidneys, pancreas, hearts, lungs, livers, intestines, heart valves, veins, tendons, bone and corneas.

In Michigan and throughout the nation, organ donation rates are climbing as hospitals work together to identify and share best practices. Gift of Life Michigan reports that there were 292 organ donors in 2006, resulting in 802 organs transplanted and saving a record number of lives in our state. Surpassing 2005, there were 914 tissue donors that enhanced and saved the lives of countless people last year. Each donor has the ability to save and enhance the lives of up to 50 people. Despite this success, 18 people die each day waiting with more than 90,000 people across the nation currently waiting for organ donations to include 3,200 Michigan residents. The challenges in raising organ donation rates are often attributed to people not being fully aware of the need for organs or the fact that most organ recipients go on to lead very active lives.

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services challenged the nation’s 300 largest hospitals to join the Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative to raise awareness of the importance of organ and tissue donation and increase donation rates at the participating hospitals. Michigan hospitals have participated in the national collaborative and their leadership teams are now sharing their experiences as peer leaders in Keystone: Gift of Life. For the past three years, Michigan has continued to break organ and tissue donation and transplantation records. Hospitals across the state and the Michigan Health and Hospital Association have contributed significantly to saving more lives in Michigan through awareness and accountability.

The Response

The Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA) Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality is partnering with Gift of Life Michigan to improve the effectiveness of hospital organ donation practices by implementing evidence based best practice interventions from the national collaborative. Goals for Keystone: Gift of Life include:

• improving referral rate — the actual number of eligible donors that are referred to evaluate for donation
• improving the number of donation requests made by designated requesters
• improving the timeliness of requests
• increasing the conversion rate — the number of eligible donors that actually result in donation
• increasing the number of organs/tissues per donor

To date, Keystone: Gift of Life has succeeded in helping raise the number of participating Michigan hospitals to nearly 40 facilities and seeking to broaden engagement.

Gift of Life Michigan is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation certified by Medicare and designated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as an organ recovery organization for Michigan. The Gift of Life Organ, Tissue & Eye Donor Registry is a confidential, 24-hour-a-day, computerized database that documents residents’ wishes regarding organ, tissue and eye donation. Because Gift of Life is contacted upon every hospital death, signing the Donor Registry is the best way to ensure a person’s wishes are carried out. Show Us Your Heart! Sign up on the Michigan Organ Donor Registry today online at www.giftoflifemichigan.org or call 800-482-4881.