TOSA Announces New Vision Statement & Processes to Improve Organ Donation

Texas Organ Sharing Alliance (TOSA), the organ procurement organization that provides organ donation and recovery services for individuals and families in Central and South Texas, is revealing its new vision statement to spearhead the organization to save more lives.

The vision statement “An organ for every person on the waiting list,” resonates with TOSA's mission of “Saving lives through the power of organ donation.”

“As our organization grows, we want to remind ourselves and the community about what we stand for and that's providing life-saving organs for the thousands of children and adults on the waiting list,” said TOSA President & CEO Joseph Nespral. “We've been implementing these changes that are already beginning to pay off in a crucial time for patients.”

Central to the process improvements implemented across the organization are focused on the Center for Life, a facility dedicated to the recovery of organ, eye and tissue at University Hospital in San Antonio. Operating since the start of the pandemic, the CFL is seeing an increase of donor heroes being transferred from more donor hospitals in TOSA's service area using specialized transportation services for an improved and streamlined process. Additionally, the CFL is participating in multiple research opportunities, including the use of non-transplantable pancreas for islet cell research which ultimately will allow donor heroes to help save countless lives.

To help ensure that every opportunity for donation is maximized, TOSA has also created a triage unit focused on taking calls from donor hospitals to manage patient referrals allowing the clinical team more time to focus on patient evaluation and donor management within partner hospitals.

Other improvements helping TOSA provide more organs for patients include:

· Adding in-house hospital development coordinators to round in hospitals overnight, increasing the opportunity for more organ donors. Current staff remains dedicated to hospital education on referral criteria for potential organ donors and assisting with donor cases within hospitals.

· Using new and advanced clinical practices with a dedicated TOSA specialist to help increase the number of viable organs for transplant.

· Incorporating virtual efforts to promote the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation with webinars, a monthly digital series called “TOSA Talks” and video public service announcements.

· Updating the structure of the Rio Grande Valley regional office in McAllen to have additional dedicated team members in each department to address the area's increasing donor opportunities.

Nationwide, 100,000 people are awaiting a life-saving organ transplant, including more than 10,000 Texans. A single person has the power to save eight lives as an organ donor and improve the lives of 75 others through tissue donation. Sign up today at www.DonateLifeTexas.org.