Donor Alliance recognized by DHHS for donation work with hospitals

Donor Alliance, the federally-designated, non-profit organ procurement organization and American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) accredited tissue bank serving Colorado and most of Wyoming was among a select group of organ procurement organizations (OPOs) nationwide recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for working with hospitals in its service area to reach gold, silver, and bronze levels of outreach for organ donation and registration.

Donor Alliance recruited hospitals to the Workplace Partnership for Life Hospital Campaign, a program launched in 2011 by HHS’s Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and worked with them to conduct awareness and registry activities to increase the number of organ, eye, and tissue donors on the state’s donor registry. Hospitals earned points for each activity planned between September 2012 and May 2013 and were awarded gold, silver, or bronze recognition in June. 

 Here is a list of CO & WY Award Winning Hospitals:

• (The) Medical Center of Aurora, Gold
• Rose Medical Center, Gold
• Parker Adventist Hospital, Silver
• Porter Adventist Hospital, Silver
• St. Anthony Hospital, Silver
• St. Thomas More Hospital, Silver
• Swedish Medical Center, Silver
• Wyoming Medical Center, Silver
• Colorado Hospital Association, Bronze
• Exempla Lutheran, Bronze
• Sky Ridge Medical Center, Bronze

 *See a full list of OPOs and hospitals recognized here.

Of the 924 hospitals and transplant centers participating in the campaign, 322 were awarded recognition—10 Colorado and Wyoming hospitals as well as the Colorado Hospital Association in Donor Alliance’s service area.

“We are pleased to see the first year of this program inspire many Colorado and Wyoming hospitals to spread the word about organ, eye and tissue donation,” said Sue Dunn, president and CEO of Donor Alliance. “We acknowledge the four bronze, five silver and two gold medal winning hospitals and the Colorado Hospital Association for their commitment to encourage people to be donors and educate their communities, patients and employees.”

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 registered as organ, eye, and tissue donors.  The campaign unites donation advocates at hospitals with representatives from OPOs, Donate Life America (DLA) 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.  To date, the campaign has registered a total of 221,834 donors nationally.

 Join the nearly 67 percent of Coloradans and 59 percent of Wyoming citizens who have registered to be organ and tissue donors. For more information about organ and tissue donation, please visit DonorAlliance.org. To register to be an organ and tissue donor, please visit DonateLifeColorado.org, DonateLifeWyoming.org or call 303-329-4747 or 1-888-256-4386 for more information.