Flagstaff Medical Center recently was awarded the Medal of Honor by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for its achievements in increasing organ donation rates. FMC is one of only four Arizona hospitals to receive the national recognition award; nationwide only 413 out of more than 7,500 hospitals received the award.

The Medal of Honor award is part of the HHS Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative. The award is given to those hospitals that have 75 percent of potential donors in their care become actual donors. Additionally, FMC was one of 81 hospitals nationwide recognized because its donors’ families chose to have multiple organs donated, benefiting many people awaiting a transplant.

“I credit our outstanding donation rates to staff and community education about the importance of organ donation,” said Nancy Wilson, R.N., director of FMC’s Intensive Care Units. “Fifty three of our nurses are specially trained as designated requestors to approach the families of those patients who meet the criteria for organ donation. They understand how difficult it is facing the death of a loved one, and they are able to help the families make the difficult decision on whether or not to donate organs. For many families, it is an opportunity to know the death of a loved one is able to help another.”

In 2007, FMC had seven patients who became organ donors after their death. As of Nov. 15, 2008, FMC already has had seven families choose organ donation after the death of their loved one. To put this into perspective, in 2007, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix had 46 donors out of a potential 61 donors (75 percent); University Medical Center in Tucson had only 9 donors out of a potential 17 donors (53 percent). Considering the size and location of these hospitals, the fact that FMC had seven organ donations in 2007 and already has had seven donations in 2008 shows that per patient, FMC is meeting and/or exceeding what other large hospitals are doing.

According to the Donor Network of Arizona, there currently are 1,734 Arizonans and 100,360 people nationwide on the organ donation waiting list. Fortunately, 1,351,317 Arizonans are listed as potential organ donors; however, certain criteria must be met at the time of death to become an actual organ donor.

To become a potential organ donor you can register online with the Arizona donor registry at azdonorregistry.org or it can be designated on your driver’s license.