Rockford Sun

SwedishAmerican Hospital issued the following announcement on May 7.

SwedishAmerican was one of 17 hospitals recently recognized by the University of Wisconsin Organ and Tissue Donation (UW OTD) for its ongoing commitment to saving and improving lives through organ and tissue donation.

SwedishAmerican Hospital received the Bronze Award of Hope, while the SwedishAmerican Medical Center in Belvidere was recognized with the Excellence in Tissue Donation award.

"Our Team at Swedish American works endlessly to support our organ donor patients and families,” said Emily O’Brien, co-chair of the SwedishAmerican Organ Donation Committee. “The compassion that this team exudes at the bedside while being able to coordinate so many channels of communication and manage the patient at the same time is insurmountable.”

The UW OTD Award of Hope recognizes the comprehensive work of hospitals that achieve or exceed the goals of two important measures that maximize the gift of life: the true conversion rate (TCR), which measures the percent of medically eligible donors that become actual donors; and organs transplanted per donor (OTPD), which measures the average number of organs recovered from each donor. Hospitals earn a gold, silver or bronze award depending on an OTPD of 3.25 (bronze), a true conversion rate of at least 75 percent (silver), or meeting both metrics (gold).

The Excellence in Tissue Donation award is given to Versiti partner hospitals who achieve at least a 60 percent consent rate. This metric measures the collaborative work between the hospital staff and tissue bank in coordinating communication around tissue consent conversations.

“The Bronze Award of Hope speaks to our incredible teamwork amongst many disciplines to provide excellent donor patient management with an end result of 3.8 organs transplanted per donor,” O’Brien said. “The Excellence in Tissue Donation award is for our efforts and collaboration with UW OTD in achieving a 67 percent consent rate for tissue donation. Swedish American was also nominated for the 2018 UW OTD Family Care Award. I feel so blessed and honored to be a part of this team. We play such a huge roll in fulfilling our patient's end of life wishes by bringing hope and life to donor recipients and their families."

The Family Care Award recognizes the comprehensive work of one hospital each year that exemplifies the highest standards of family support during an organ donation case. In order to be eligible for the award, a hospital must demonstrate consistent innovative family support practices, and have at least one outstanding case example of those practices in action from the previous calendar year.

"The clinical management of donors, coupled with a hospital's compassionate support of donor families, is a critical component to saving lives through the gift of organ donation and transplantation," said Michael Anderson, executive director of UW OTD. "We honor these hospitals and their incredible physicians and nursing teams for working so hard to help ensure that those who are waiting for a transplant will get a second chance at life."

The award winners are honored during a ceremony May 8th in Wisconsin Dells and also include the following institutions in Wisconsin: Aspirus Wausau Hospital (Wausau), Mayo Clinic Health System (Eau Claire), Mercy Hospital and Trauma Center (Janesville), UW Health – University Hospital (Madison), SSMHealth St. Mary’s Hospital (Madison), American Family Children’s Hospital (Madison), Ascension Mercy Hospital (Oshkosh), HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital (Eau Claire), ThedaCare Regional Medical Center (Neenah), Aurora BayCare Medical Center (Green Bay), Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center (LaCrosse), Ascension St. Michael’s Hospital (Stevens Point), Aspirus Langlade Hospital & Clinics (Antigo), Aspirus Langlade Hospital & Clinics (Wisconsin Rapids), Sauk Prairie Hospital (Prairie Du Sac) and Dr. Donn Dexter Mayo Clinic Health System (Eau Claire).

Original source can be found here.