SAN ANTONIO, TX — Texas Organ Sharing Alliance (TOSA), the organ procurement organization that provides organ donation and recovery services in Central and South Texas, is proud to announce that dozens of hospitals within its service area have scored among the highest in Texas, and the nation, in organ and tissue donor awareness education and outreach.
TOSA works closely with 133 hospitals in Central and South Texas to facilitate the organ donation process. In 2018, 43 of these hospitals participated and ranked extremely well in a national campaign that promotes the life-saving power of organ and tissue donation. The Workplace Partnership for Life Hospital Campaign (WPFL), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), strives to help hospitals promote the importance of donation in their facilities and communities. Since it began in 2001, the campaign has added more than 443,000 donor enrollments to state registries nationwide.
In the last campaign challenge, hospitals earned points for each activity implemented from October 2017 to April 2018, and were awarded platinum, gold, silver, or bronze recognition. Of the 43 participating hospitals in TOSA's service area, 26 earned the platinum designation; six were ranked gold level; nine earned silver status, and two hospitals were awarded bronze status. Nationwide, TOSA's partnering hospitals were tied for fourth place, with LifeLink of Puerto Rico, for having the most platinum award scores. Of the 45 hospitals in Texas to earn a ranking from HRSA, all but two were TOSA-partnering institutions.
"We are proud that so many of our hospital partners participate in this national campaign and work hard to spread the word about organ and tissue donation," said TOSA CEO Dr. Joseph Nespral. "We want to highlight these efforts and give credit to our participating hospital partners, and encourage them to continue the great work."
Within the WPFL program, hospital partners host donor registration activities in their facilities and in the community and also encourage their staff and visitors to register as organ, eye and tissue donors with Donate Life Texas, the official registry for the state. TOSA's Hospital Services Department staff recruit hospitals to participate, and support their efforts by providing material on organ donation, co-hosting donor registration drives and flag-raising ceremonies honoring donors. Individual hospitals were recognized for achievements and efforts at TOSA's annual hospital appreciation events where each were presented with certificates of recognition from HRSA's Division of Transplantation.
For a complete list of Workplace Partnership for Life Hospital Campaign scores please click
here. For information on organ donation and community initiatives, or to register online, visit www.TOSA1.org.