New York Organ Donor Network Reveals That There Were 205 Organ Donors in the New York Metro Area in 2002, Still Below the National Average;
Hospitals With the Most Organ Donors Are Named
- April 14, 2003
The New York Organ Donor Network, the organ procurement organization (OPO) serving 13 million people in the Greater New York metropolitan area, says that 246 families or 41 percent consented to organ donation in 2002, a three percent improvement over the 240 families in 2001, but still substantially below the 50% consent rate nationwide. At the same time, the Donor Network, celebrating its 25th anniversary, has published a list of New York metro area hospitals that secured the greatest number of organ donors last year for organ donation, with Jacobi Medical Center topping the rankings.
All 112 New York metropolitan area hospitals are required by law to notify the Donor Network (their local OPO) of all in-hospital deaths in a timely manner, so that organ and tissue donation can be discussed with families of the deceased. In 2002, the Donor Network received 55,742 hospital referrals, of which only 568 patients or 1%, were caused by brain death, a precondition necessary for organ donation. Of that number, 246 families consented to donation but only 205 organ donors were medically suitable and became donors. Each donor was able to save an average of three people who would have died without a transplant.
With a total of 14 organ donors, the Bronx-based Jacobi Medical Center led the field of hospitals with the most number of organ donors. In second place, with 12 donors, was Westchester County Medical Center. The third highest number of donors (10) were recovered from New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. In joint fourth place, with nine donors each, were St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center – Manhattan and University Hospital – SUNY at Stony Brook. St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, with eight organ donors, ranked fifth.
Elaine Berg, President and CEO of the Donor Network, says: “We are gratified that we were able to save more lives in 2002 because of the slightly higher number of organs recovered for transplant. However, there is still a serious shortage of organ donors, and the fact that we lag behind most of the nation in terms of consent, continues to pose a serious challenge to us as we celebrate our 25th year. As we step up our efforts to increase donation, we wish to recognize all the hospitals that worked with families and the Donor Network staff last year to recover more organs than in 2001. Ranking the donor hospitals certainly allows us to acknowledge the important roles of the leading hospitals. But we should also bear in mind that some larger hospitals have a greater potential to recover donors than others, and therefore each and every organ recovered from every hospital truly enables us to give people a second chance at life.”
Demographics of New York Metro Organ Donors in 2002: Out of the 205 organ donors in the Greater New York metropolitan area in 2002, 112 (or 55%) were males and 93 (or 45%) were females. 136 were white, 64 black, three Asian, and two were designated as “other.” Hispanics constituted 47 of the total number of organ donors. The majority of organ donors (44%) were in the 16-45 age group. The other age group percentages were: 15 and younger (8%), 46-60 (25%), 61-70 (12%), and 71 years of age and older (10%).
List of Top Hospitals That Recovered Organs for Transplantation in the Greater New York metropolitan area in 2002*
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