PHILADELPHIA, PA – Gift of Life Donor Program – the organ procurement organization for the eastern half of Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware – and the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) Southeast Connect, honored Crozer-Chester Medical Center with the 2020 Gift of Life Award on November 6, 2020. This prestigious, annual award is given to a hospital(s) with superior performance in organ donation that have either achieved a 75% organ donation conversion rate during the past year, or that have dramatically improved their performance.
From left to right: Joseph Paparo, Hospital Services Coordinator, Gift of Life Donor Program; Stacie Maiers, Assistant Clinical Director, Emergency Department, Crozer-Chester Medical Center; Elaina Fernandez, Clinical Nursing Director, Neuro ICU, Crozer-Chester Medical Center; Tom McKniff, Clinical Director, Emergency Department, Crozer-Chester Medical Center; M. Hassan Budeir M.D., F.A.C.S., Trauma Program Medical Director, Crozer-Chester Medical Center; Loreen Evans, Clinical Educator, Emergency Department, Crozer-Chester Medical Center; Liz Dougherty, Clinical Nursing Director, Medical ICU, Crozer-Chester Medical Center; Sandra Durgin, Trauma Program Director and Interim Surgical Director for Surgical Trauma Unit, Crozer-Chester Medical Center.
Gift of Life also recognized 14 Pennsylvania hospitals that achieved a 100% patient referral rate. The hospitals are: Abington Hospital – Jefferson Health, Bryn Mawr Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience, Jefferson Torresdale Hospital, Lankenau Medical Center, Mercy Catholic Medical Center – Mercy Fitzgerald Campus, Nazareth Hospital, Paoli Hospital, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. The recipients were honored during a virtual HAP Southeast Connect Meeting.
“We are delighted to present the 2020 Gift of Life Award to Crozer-Chester Medical Center for their extraordinary performance in organ donation,” said Howard M. Nathan, President and CEO, Gift of Life Donor Program.
“We thank this dedicated team for their commitment to best practices and for making organ donation a routine part of end of life compassionate care, providing others with a second chance at life.”
Crozer Health CEO, Peter Adamo, attributes the program’s success to the team’s commitment to care for a global community well beyond our home in Delaware County. “Helping families understand the value of organ donation requires compassion, sensitivity and empathy,” said Adamo, “and the team at Crozer-Chester Medical Center has years of experience in helping people find the courage. I’m proud of everyone at Crozer Health who embraces opportunities to champion worthy causes like Gift of Life. Together, we help each other achieve our mission.”
Gift of Life Donor Program
Gift of Life Donor Program is the non-profit, federally-designated organ procurement organization, working with 128 acute care hospitals and 15 transplant centers to serve 11.2 million people in the eastern half of Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. Thanks to is compassionate community, for the past 12 years, Gift of Life has coordinated the most life-saving organs for transplant in the United States. Its annual donation rate ranks among the highest in the world. Since 1974, Gift of Life has coordinated more than 50,000 life-saving organs for transplant, and approximately 1.5 million tissue transplants have resulted from the generosity of donors and their families. One organ donor can save the lives of up to eight people, and a tissue donor can improve the lives of more than 75 others. For more information or to register, visit donors1.org.