November 4, 2003

UCSD Medical Center Is Part Of National
Collaborative To Be Recognized By Secretary
Tommy Thompson For Organ Donation Increase

By Jeffree Itrich

UCSD Medical Center recently teamed with Lifesharing Community Organ & Tissue Donation and Sharp Grossmont Hospital, to increase organ donation rates by joining in the Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative launched by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson in April 2003.

In the six months prior to the start of the collaborative, UCSD Medical Center had a donation rate of 36%; in the six months of post-collaborative intervention, the donation rate has increased to 75%. Sharp Grossmont had a donation rate of 27% in the pre-collaborative months and has increased to 100%.

Secretary Tommy Thompson will recognize LifeSharing’s success at UCSD and Grossmont Hospital in the third and final learning session on April 22 to be held in Dearborn, Michigan. Secretary Thompson will make live remarks commending LifeSharing and the San Diego hospitals that will be broadcast on the satellite downlink. Digital photographs will also be available. All of the satellite download information may be found on the right side of the Collaborative website home page (organdonation.iqsolutions.com).

Thompson is committed to increasing organ donation rates to 75% or higher by encouraging hospitals to learn and replicate Best Practices from the nation’s largest hospitals, which have the highest number of donors. The goal is to convert Best Practices to Common Practices. Fourteen of the nation’s largest hospitals have already achieved organ donation rates of 75% or more.

To learn about and apply the Best Practices, multidisciplinary teams from Lifesharing, UCSD Medical Center and Sharp Grossmont Hospital have been participating in an intensive series of Collaborative Learning Sessions and Action Periods from September 2003 to April 2004. Drawing from the experience of practitioners from organizations with high donation rates, these teams have worked together over the last eight months to adapt, redesign, test, implement, and track their organ donation process to achieve donation rates of 75% or higher.

“The driving force behind the San Diego Collaborative is the commitment and support from our UCSD and Sharp team members. They are our day to day leaders for organ donation,” said Lisa Stocks, Executive Director of Lifesharing. “We are thrilled to be recognized for being able to incorporate higher success rates for organ donation in all of our local hospitals through the Best Practices of the Collaborative.”

Over 84,000 Americans are currently waiting for organs. In 2002, organs were donated by only 6,617 of an estimated 14,000 potential donors (about 46%). As a result, an average of 17 people on the transplant waiting list die each day.

Media Contact: Jeffree Itrich (619) 543-6427